A Gathering of Goodies from A Shopping Day with Friends

Oh what a motley crew we were but, we were having fun! Last week Lisa of Tarnished & Tattered, Pat of Tattered Elegance & I went to Benbrook Mall in southwest Ft Worth. We shopped til we dropped (almost). Lisa had the sales lady snap a photo of us at the front counter. I forgot my camera but, Lisa had hers & said I could borrow this photo from her to share with you.

Here are a few of my goodies from "The Hunt". You can see the sweet card of the woman & child here (I loved both of their faces) & at the top right is a glimpse of one of the hats I bought but, not to worry I'll show you more later. And the pink & cream crochet pieces I LOVED! Especially the one with the rose on top. And that bit of crochet confection under those pieces are a pair of crocheted gloves. I LOVE THEM!

Here is a close up of the gloves. What do I plan to do with them? Well, in April I am going to Jennifer's Art Event called Petticoats & Parasols (click the side bar button to see the wonder) & I thought these would be marvelous stitched on my parasol. What do you think?

Another angle of the goodies shows yet another hat (top left) that I don't know if I will have the NERVE to cut apart. You see I buy these with such good intentions & then the actual act of taking scissors to them makes me weak in the knees. NOT LISA! Oh no, last year riding home from Round Top she had 3 of the hacked apart in NO TIME AT ALL! GASP!!!!!!!!!! And do you love the buttons? I do!!!!! They are the softest shade of mint green & have perfect little stones in each one of them.

Now you can see that gorgeous BLUE hat! Could you take scissors to that? Also, the beautiful picture of the dog was a gift from Lisa. Go HERE to get the story on that.

And the last photo to share is a close up of the vintage millinery on this hat. Be still my heart!!! I think a couple of these photos are pretty enough to go on my sidebar for the spring. What do you think? Now, I'm off to work on my swap items for Petticoats & Parasols. I only need 24 or is it 26? WHAT WAS I THINKING? I hope you have a beautiful week!

A Little Mail LOVE & A GIFT from a SWEET FRIEND!

Whirling Swirling DIVA's arrived! Back about a month ago I happened upon the blog of Karyn from FRENCH CHARMING & became so amused by THIS post about Pixie & Trixie. These girls show up OFTEN at Karyn's & I just love the way they add a bit of fun so I commented on her post & told her I LOVED Pixie & Trixie. I had seen these little beauties different places in BLOGLAND but, couldn't find any to purchase. Karyn offered to send me my very own. Today they arrived & since I was working on some of my swap items & the glitter was handy... yep you guessed it they dove in! The little stands that came with these girls just need a bit of bling. Now, they will be in style whether they use their stands or not. THANK YOU KARYN!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yesterday was a beautiful spring day here in Texas so a couple of my friends & I had planned to go JUNKIN. My partners in crime were Lisa from Tarnished & Tattered & Pat from My Tattered Elegance . We met at an Antique store in west Ft Worth & hit the isles. I can tell you the sales people just kept showing up to take our goodies (that is a whole different post to share all the goods) to the front counter so we had plenty of hands to keep shopping. After we shopped we needed food. We were running short of time so we went over somewhere close. When we set down to eat SWEET Lisa pulled out a sack with goodies for both Pat & I. She gave Pat a beautiful picture of flowers since she knows how Pat loves roses. And for me she had carefully wrapped in vintage pattern pieces (tied with vintage seam binding & an old clip with a sweet puppy on it) this wonderful old print of a dog that she said reminded her of my Precious Reba.
Also, there was a poem written by Jimmy Stewart that she loved & wanted me to have. She had sent the poem to me in U Tube form of Jimmy reading the poem on Johnny Carson. I wanted to share it with you & I hope you'll take the time to sit & listen to it. And think of the wonderf of friendship... it takes so many forms. Old/New Furry/Human Close/Far... Such blessing they all are. THANK YOU SWEET FRIEND YOU TOUCHED MY HEART!



I hope you enjoyed the peeks of my goodies. Blogland is such an amazing place. HUGS to all my friends.

Heartfelt Thanks for A Handmade Heart

I know I have shared the WONDER of the generosity of beautiful souls in Blogland in previous posts and today, I have to say again I have been blessed. I received this beautiful HANDMADE HEART from Sylvia of Villa Extra (Click HERE to go visit her) who lives in The Netherlands. Sylvia & I became blog friends last year when she was going down a bumpy road herself. I sent her a book that I thought would help see her through. And since then we have continued to share a wonderful friendship. I NEVER MISS A POST ON HER BLOG BECAUSE HER PHOTOGRAPHS & MOSAICS ARE AMAZING! She starting making Handmade Hearts sometime last year. Always using vintage fabrics & trims the hearts are each a piece of ART! When you visit her be sure to scroll through & see the different designs. This heart she made for me was made from a piece of a tablecloth that used to belong to her grandmother. And the stuffing for it was from one of her sons childhood toys (she loves to re purpose things in her life & I found this touching to open the toy & to put it to such beautiful use). Here is shot of this beauty outside in the sunshine & flowers. The weather is so beautiful today & is supposed to change tonight. So, I though I better get myself out into the sunshine & share some of the wonders of spring in my front garden. The HEART laying in a bed of violets under my front bench looks beautiful doesn't it?

And I had to share my favorite flowers of all Viola's or another name for them Johnny Jump Ups. They self seed themselves every year in my flowerbeds. The wind scatters the seeds so who knows where their sweet faces will be found. Imagine hundreds of these darlings smiling up at you as you walk down my front path.

This is a Lone Ranger that came up in the mulch next to the entwined branches of an ornamental hibiscus.

And here is a close up of those violets under my bench again. My friend Monica of The White Bench said these are her favorite spring flowers so when I saw them nodding at me in the sunshine I snapped a photo of them for her & Kim. Enjoy them my BDay girlfriend (hope you'll hop over to tell her Happy Birthday).

Also, I received the beautiful hand painted portrait of my sweet Reba girl from the amazing artist Violet Skiles. If you missed that post be sure & go HERE to see it. If you have a much loved pet that you would like to capture forever Violet is the girl for the job. THANK YOU AGAIN VIOLET! Have a beautiful weekend. Today it's in the high 60's & tomorrow they are calling for chances of snow. YIKES! If you don't like Texas weather... wait 5 minutes they say. Guess I'll be covering my peach blossoms hoping to save them so I'll have peaches this summer. HUGS!

One Last ADORN ME Post

Meet the artist night kicked off ADORN ME the first night. Diana Frey & Melissa Manley set up next to each other at this event & became fast friends. As you know Diana is my friend & mentor from California & I couldn't wait to hug her neck. And I was BLESSED to have Melissa as my roommate. When I signed up for this event I knew I would be driving down by myself & I did not have anyone to share a room with. I put up a message on the Yahoo Message Board that I was looking for a roomy. For over a month no one contacted me (most girls went with friends & had roommates already). Then one day I got an inquiry about sharing a room. I didn't know this person... she lived in North Carolina & she was an instructor. Enter Melissa Manley & a friendship that was almost like a sisterhood ensued. And I am sure it won't end here (also, I have a forever roomy for future events). We are both Gemini's & have so much in common. LOVE YA GIRLFRIEND! Here is Riki & Diane at Diane's table. Sorry for the grainy photos!!!!! The lighting STUNK in this hotel.

And sweet Rice I told you about(wish my computer would put those TWO dots over your name like it's supposed to grrrrrr). She & Earl were everywhere taking pictures & getting info for the new book. Notice her shirt... she dyes her own fabrics & does all the bead work (and there are thousands of beads hand sewn on this tunic) on all her clothes.

Tuesday after classes we all met in the lobby bar for a free Happy Hour provided by the hotel. That was an evening event so everyone could socialize & meet other artists.

Tuesday night I took a Resin Paper class from Deryn Mentock. It was a fascinating class & again, I feel very blessed because Deryn & I just sort of bonded & we have promised to keep up with each other & try to do a few things together since we live fairly close to each other. Deryn lives in the Houston area & teaches at many events all over the country. She is teaching in Salado, TX at an event called Shady Ladies in April. Click HERE to visit her website & get more details. Come on Texas girls let's support these art events here so we get MORE closer to home. Anyway, here is Deryn & some of the girls mixing resin.

After we had our resin mixed we sponged it onto our papers. Sorry about the glaring YELLOW plastic sheets laid everywhere but, RESIN IS MESSY & we had to protect our work areas & have a place for all of this to dry overnight. Below you can see Rice watching as some of the girls are working.

Here are my pieces drying. A big piece of sheet music, a blue & white piece of tissue paper (that when dry is transparent) as well as a napkin with a bird nest, egg & feather.

Here is a necklace that Deryn had as an example. The oak leaf is made of resin paper. And the acorns are actual acorn caps while the nut part is a bead that she used when making this wonderful piece. I loved the natural elements used!

The next few photos show the class example. The necklace used the resin paper in the flower as well as the leaves on the sides.

The flower part has a cone of resin paper wrapped inside the cone that sari silk is spun around. Deryn buys these & then puts the colorful kits together with sari silk & packages them up to become these beautiful floral centerpieces. I bought an extra so I would have another one to use in a different necklace.

I also wanted to share Deryn's AMAZING ART JOURNAL with you. She made this beauty for herself & it is a working artists journal. It is bound in a vintage book.

With an interesting technique for the spine. I love all the area this gives her to add wonderful trinkets & finds.

An inside page showing some resin papers that she had colored(with descriptions so she would remember what she had used to achieve those colors) & some design sketches Deryn had done! BEAUTIFUL JOB MY FRIEND!

Now, let's move to Vendor Night. Oh my goodness there were so many wonderful things to see & buy. The public showed up in droves! I will warn you the photos are not the greatest because the lighting in the ballroom was terrible. But, let's step in & see a few of the tables.

Here's my precious roommate Melissa. I told you she was into big time metal work. She is a teacher at a college in Wilmington, North Carolina. For vendor night she had made a tray (the long black piece in the center) of rings. Each one was so different & unusual. People loved them.

And below is her Ocean Talisman Necklace (she taught this class at ADORN ME). Inside the mesh was a couple of beautiful shells & attached to many of the ribbons there were shells also.

Next is Deryn Mentock standing next to her beautiful Santos. I loved the Santos & she really made a statement on Deryn's table. Sadly she only gets to accompany Deryn to events held in Texas because she is so difficult to transport.

Another shot of Deryn's table shows her fabulous VINTAGE velvet jewelry box full of some of her treasures she stocked for Vendor Night.

And her is sweet Diane at her table full of goodies. Love the old travel case Diane! This gal has a knack for displaying!

And here is a shot of Diana's table before the masses came in & scooped up her wares. And I do mean masses. When the doors opened her students RUSHED to buy the pieces they had coveted during class. Diana left with very little to pack (but I did notice she just listed a few of the remaining piece on her Etsy Shop so rush over HERE to scoop one up or just see some better closeups).

A shot of Riki's lovely table & all her goodies. That beautiful silver candelabra was a prop Diane brought from her favorite Antique Store in Katy, TX. It was a perfect piece for Riki's necklaces to hang off of.

Here we are LATE in the evening. The hot lights had curled Deryn & my bangs, the lights were glaring off Diana & my glasses but, it had been a busy night with lots of sales & these girls were happy!

OK, I warned you the lights were horrible & Photoshop can only fix so much girls. SORRY! This is the end of the ADORN ME photos. I wanted you to feel like you got to see my classes & teachers as well as meet some new friends. Please click on each person's name & go visit their blogs. You will see some interesting things & meet some amazing artists. Please tell them Charlene sent you to see them. Now I am back to trying to catch up after being gone for a week. WOW those invoices sure can pile up on a girls desk while she is away having fun. Have a wonderful week. HUGS!

Pink Saturday & A Few of My Favorite Things

Happy PINK Saturday! Nothing better than BLUE skies & PINK buds on the trees after lots of cold weather & snow. Enjoy the beauty of a couple of trees here in my neighborhood. And then stroll down for a beautiful PINK necklace & a great Giveaway. I did a post the other day HERE about the beautiful jewelry that was made at ADORN ME. This beauty I saved for PINK Saturday knowing all of you would LOVE it. My friend Brigitte made this in Diana Frey's class Twisted Sistah. Go to the other post & check out the others.Don't you love this cute PINK button? Who doesn't love a Give Away? And Anne at Fiona & Twig is doing a CUSTOM Give Away. She is letting you create your own. I thought the PINK in this button was just too cute. So click HERE & go register to win. Be sure & go see Beverly & all the other PINKIE'S with one click of the BUTTON on my side bar.

Show & Tell Friday Showing The Gift of Love

How can a person capture LOVE on canvas? I have to say that BLOGLAND is an amazing place! As all of you that know me or have read my blog, know I lost my precious Princess Reba on February 18th. It had been a long battle & many of you were so sweet & supportive during that time. After her passing I had an OUT POURING of kind comments, offers of hugs, love, & puppy kisses from many of you & your own loved animals. And then the cards started coming in the mail. And some precious gifts of love & comfort. THANK YOU to each & every one of you as all of those have helped so much.

What I want to Show & Tell you about is a gift that is on it's way to my house. The gift from a precious talented soul named Violet Skiles of CREATE BEAUTY (click HERE to visit her) . I found Violet months ago & we have been reading each others blogs & commenting back & forth. Developing a wonderful friendship. I have admired her work for so long. We talked fur babies(she has 2 beautiful Afghans). She had once had a Sheltie (like Reba) which she lost 8 years ago & her daughter has 2 Shelties (which is short for Shetland Sheep Dog. And yes, they come from the same island as the ponies) so she knew what treasures they are. I received an email a couple of weeks ago asking if she could paint Reba for me & would I please send her some photos to look at. I did & today I got an email saying that this beautiful painting is coming to me in an 8x10 inch size. She suggested matting it in 11x14 & then framing it. Also, I am getting a dozen note cards with this image on them. I can't wait!!! Can you imagine my delight & pleasure that a person I had never met has reached across this big ocean of BLOGLAND & done such a precious thing? AMAZING! A BLESSING FOR SURE! THANK YOU VIOLET (& all of you who have been there for me).

And thank you Cindy for hosting SHOW & TELL FRIDAY. I hope all of you will go visit Cindy & the others playing Show & Tell today. AND PLEASE GO VISIT VIOLET & TELL HER YOU SAW HER BEAUTIFUL GIFT OF REBA & THAT CHARLENE SENT YOU. Also, check out the other things she has painted. You will be amazed.

Twisted Sistah Class with Diana Frey

Day two at ADORN ME was a class called TWISTED SISTAH by my friend & mentor Diana Frey. I was so excited to be back in Diana's class & had the honor of helping her. Diana had emailed me weeks before the event & asked it I would help her set up her class & also help her at Vendor Night. I was so pleased that she asked. I will share the beautiful gift she brought me later in another post but, let's move on to class. I think you can tell why she named this beauty such a name. This was out class example.

And here is the sweet & talented Diana teaching us her wonder. She laughs when I tell everyone that a class with her is like be exposed to CRACK! One class is never enough! At the end of class EVERYONE agreed with me. Diana just blushed but, it's true.

Below, is one of the pieces (examples)that Diana shared with the class. I ALMOST bought this wonderful treasure. I just loved the unusual chain she used & all the unique elements in this necklace. Another one of my lucky classmates bought this at Vendor Night. But, I had already decided I would make one myself. After all... I took the class. That's good reasoning. RIGHT? Then why do I regret not buying this necklace EVERY time I see it?

See the vintage coins & the little silver French religious figure. And a wonderful vintage button along with a soldered charm & a silver charm orf the Eiffel Tower to add to the French flair. As well as the beautiful & highly decorative items there were few surf polished stones Diana had picked up on the beach somewhere.

Another example was this eye catching example done in all sorts of green. The charm on here was a bubble charm done by Sally Jean Alexander. Diana has been to Sally Jeans studio to study in the past & she really loved this charm & necklace. It had a cute saying about ART on it but, I am sorry to say I can't remember what it said. Diana could not decide if she could part with it or not but, in the end another classmate Karen Art (from Canada) talked her into selling saying "It has my name on it" Good for you Karen.

This next piece had less twisted & more stones. Done in a soft lemon sherbet mix of colors.

Well, those are Diana's & below is a shot of the "BEAD SOUP" for my necklace. I have seen a pattern of neutral colors in my work lately. You know those "safe/goes with everything" sort of colors. Before going to this event I chose to take a lot of colors to work with. I wanted to challenge myself to get out of my "Comfort Zone" of neutral & use COLOR! I chose green because I loved the touch of green & brown I saw in Diana's bird in the bezel she did. To start the project you choose the image for your bezel & then you start piling beads & trinkets together. I really didn't have any trinkets so most of my elements were beads & pearls. Sorry for the glare on this photo. I thought I had touched up all the photos but, I can see by the glare of the flash (it was hard to get good lighting in those class rooms) & WAY too much bead mat I missed this one.

One thing I had brought (not knowing I would use it for this) was a brass flower. Most of the other girls used a patina & made their wire dark. I used a little but, I really liked the beautiful colors of the wire after I had torched it. So, when I saw the brass flower I thought "that works with this" & I added a beautiful peach colored prism inside the flower. Much to my surprise it has a beautiful bell like sound when there is any movement to the piece. Below, is a close up of my little bird (that started out black & white) that I colored with water color pencils before filling it with resin.

As you can see I am not quiet half way through with my necklace. I still have a long way to go. Do you like the long shell on the right(see bleow)? I think it looks like a bird feather don't you? Of course after I get all of the beading done I will need to find just the right chain or ribbon or?????? to finish this up. I CAN'T WAIT TO WEAR THIS!

I would like to share a few of the other girls work. Remember I told you that it is not uncommon to finish a class like this & have to complete your piece at home? I think there were 19 or 20 gals in this class & only one completely finished her piece.

Sweet Carol ALMOST had hers done. But, she wanted to add a few more things she knew she had at home but, you can see in the photo below that she is close to having it ready.

And Karen Art from Canada decided to not use her bezel for this piece (she used it for a piece she did in Diana's Thursday class) so she used a wonderful vintage piece of BLING as her focal point. GOOD JOB GIRLS! A DIVINE class Ms Diana. THANK YOU for sharing your wonder !!!!!

That's it for today. I have one more finished TWISTED SISTA that is to die for but, I'm saving it to show you for PINK Saturday. Bet ya can't guess what color it is. Hee Hee. I'll be back in a few days to share the other class & what I learned from the marvelous Deyn Mentock. Thank you Linda for putting together such a great event. Are you guys already starting to plan for next year so you can join us? Linda was already starting to plan the next event. Have a wonderful rest of the week.