Yeppers! That's ME after coming back from Paper Cowgirls! This photo Candy (of Rock Candy) let me borrow explains life after Paper Cowgirls... I THOUGHT I could come home & relax a little. Play around & leisurely finish my one last swap for my Les Sirenes (my Mermaid Event in California), paint my Mermaid Jeans or make my tulle skirt. OH NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That would be to flippin easy & fun! Hubby is having some MAJOR problems. Today was a failed CT scan with one at the hospital scheduled for Thursday AND a cardiologist appointment that now leads to an Eco Cardiogram & a stress test with probable heart surgery in the very near future. Just when I thought we were buying the RV, hitting the road to play, & LIFE lookin good... POT HOLES! So, I'm asking all my friends out there to please say some powerful prayers for us! HUGS!

Paper Cowgirls 2010

Welcome to Paper Cowgirls! Well, OK not really. But, I wanted to share my weekend at Paper Cowgirls with you. This is the first year I have gotten to go & I had a good time. Above is the Banner I made in my Digi Girl Class (taught by the wonderful Mendy). I thought it would be a great opening photo.

And the PINK & Aqua was the mannequin that they had all decked out at the opening Meet & Greet Party. That was sooooooooooooome sparkly hat!

Everyone said I had to take a photo of me all dressed up. Well, here it is. I hope to get a few better ones after I see some of the other girls photos. And I did buy one of the Photo CD's from Deb (the photographer for a lot of this event) but, for now this will have to do. DARN IT, I am not holding the little Dale Evans purse from Sandy. It is of course on the table across from me. SORRY SANDY! But, there's the boot, belt & hat. Everyone seemed to really like it all.

One of the two cuffs that sweet Sarah of Gypsy Mermaid received. This one is so pretty & pink but, the other one (sorry my photo was too fuzzy to share) was amazing. I have asked her to send me a shot of the other one & I will share it when I can. There were a number of swaps that were so much fun to look at but, I just couldn't participate in one more thing since I am in the middle of doing the swaps for my next Art Event in California. I know that's not much of a post but, it is late & I am tired. And for some reason so many of my photos were not clear. ????? Lighting???? Sweet Jodi & I did have a wonderful talk about photography (which she is really good at) so, hopefully things will improve. I do have some wonderful photos of the class that my friend (& first night roommate) Lisa taught. She did an amazing job! So be on the watch. Have a great week.

Gettin Ready for PAPER COWGIRLS ART EVENT!

HOWDY YA'LL!!!!!!!!!!That's Texan Talkin... I wanted to say that I have had a BUSY week. Last Saturday was Karen Valentines amazing WHERE BLOGGERS CREATE II PARTY & I have not even finished visiting those listed in the A's section. I had the GRANDS all weekend & add in Fathers Day & there just wasn't time to get'r done! I will work through that list until I visit each & everyone of you & I hope you will all visit my studio too.

After cleaning the studio, I was able to use my workspace for creating goodies for TWO (of 3) of the swaps for Les Sirenes Art Event. Both swaps are in the mail & I am moving on to my next project... GOING TO PAPER COWGIRLS ART RETREAT! Held locally it will be a piece of cake with no travel involved. I am thrilled to be sharing a room with my buddy Lisa of Tarnished & Tattered (she will be teaching/vending at the event). I am thrilled to have a chance to sit in the hotel & see the newest Somerset Magazine where Lisa has been PUBLISHED for the very first time. CONGRATULATIONS my sweet friend... it is well deserved for you are an amazing artist.
Here's the new belt I bought to wear to the event. Pretty snazzy don't ya think?

I bought the belt (& my Cowgirl Boots seen below) at a wonderful little shop in The Stockyards in Fort Worth Texas. The name of the store is SASSY PANTZ & is owned by two very sweet sisters named Candice & Holly. If you are ever in the area be sure & visit The Stockyards for it is a really fun place.

And my sweet little purse sent to me as a BIRTHDAY GIFT (see that POST HERE) from my sweet friend Sandy Navarro will be goin to the event for sure.

And of course I'll be wearin my awesome boots from Hubby (another BDay present). Sooooooooooooo many of you have commented on my boots & how much you love them. They are made by Corral Boots & are part of the Vintage Line. Call Holly or Candice at Sassy Pantz if you are interested in having them ship you a pair. When I bought my belt last week Candice said they had just received a shipment & already sold over half of them. Here's the info for the store: Sassy Pantz 140 E. Exchange St #112 Fort Worth, TX 76164. And the phone is 817-624-8188 Good Luck on gettin yourself a pair! Cowgirl UP! Now, I have to get in there & "whip up" my skirt I want to wear Saturday. Come back for some photos of the event. And a BIG THANK YOU for the photo used above thanks to my friend KIM at Paris Cowgirl. Have a great weekend.

Where Bloggers Create II Blog Party

Welcome to my precious friend Karen's SECOND Where Blogger Create Blog Party! This is my first year to participate & I am so excited. THANK YOU sweet Karen for being the Hostess with the Mostest! If you saw THIS post you know my studio was in BAD SHAPE! I tried to get out of participating but, Karen very FIRMLY told me to "GET IN THERE & CLEAN IT UP". It took a WEEK but, I am now so happy that I can again create at my workspace(I'd been cheating & working at my jewelry design space or on the island in the kitchen... SHAME on me).

Welcome to my studio workspace. This area has a wonderful window that over looks my front garden & provides amazing light (but, not good for a photo shoot) for when I work. The wall paper is garden themed for this reason. I can tell you that I had been tired of it for quite awhile but, after spending the week in there cleaning I HATE IT! That wall paper is so out of there when I get the time! So, next year there will be a BIG change. My work table measures a wonderful eight feet of space to SPREAD!

My studio is actually located in my laundry room which is HUGE! My precious Daddy built me this wonderful set of shelves & installed them for me to "Hide" my STUFF! Truly my hero! Oh how I miss him in soooooooo many ways.

OK, not everything got totally cleaned up. But, in the photo above you can see the inside of one of those shelf units from Daddy Dearest. TONS of space & fill it I DO!

This is one of the long cabinets. Originally it had my vacuum cleaner, mops & supplies stored here. YECK, I needed the space for my plastic containers for scrapbook papers & embellishment a whole lot more than that cleaning stuff! It's all banished to the garage & now I have stacked bins all labeled by subject so it's easy to pull the container I need. My craft aprons hang on the hooks inside.

I told you it was garden themed... Yikes! This is one of the storage units (you'll see more of it later) that houses more supplies. I bought that adorable Cupcake Fairy Decoration from Cathy Scallise at the recent Petticoats & Parasols Art Event in Atlanta. It nicely hides the electrical plug behind it. LOVE IT CATHY! Also, you see a stack of my much loved vintage seam binding & a couple of old bottles that are wanting to be re purposed.

Another shot of the same area with a vintage hat. I love these old hats & have the hardest time snipping them apart. My buddy Lisa of Tarnished & Tattered is a master at this but, we both hate spending so much for these jewels & are hoping to go visit Karla Nathan who promises we can find them CHEAP up where she lives. We're countin on it Karla & talking a ROAD TRIP!

Moving on the next area is storage for smalls. It is the typical case with tiny drawers & on top of it I have stacking containers of buttons, bells, glitter & such. Also a vintage creamer with some tiny flowers, a favorite stamp, a box of rhinestone crown items, a beautiful crystal formation & my little studio mascot. Oh look at those wonderful old tiny sterling salt spoons just waiting to be included in another project (I put one on my Secret Shaker Doll Necklace).

Here is a shot of the unit from a bit further back. The area in this part of the room is done in a large horseshoe shape. The storage unit below holds a bunch of photo boxes for photos waiting to be put into scrapbooks, ribbons, & other goodies. And you see that power strip just ready for glue gun, soldering guns & whatever else might need a power tool.

Following around the room we come to the workspace again. And you can see some of my supplies & those blinds are now open for a little light on the subject.

In this area the ceilings are 12 feet tall so Hubby installed a shelf up high for me to put other treasures on & you can see the supports for the shelf in this photo.

And some of the goodies on the high shelves are vintage bottles waiting there turn to become something FUN, some pretty silk flowers & a silly Dolly Mama with her PINK feathered hat.

A small vintage child's hutch that I want to use for display when I have a jewelry show or vendor sale. A metal wreath with the prettiest morning glories & another vintage hat.

Back to my workspace... I have a PASSION for old buttons. I especially LOVE Mother of Pearl & Glass Buttons. Here are few just waiting to be used in creating or for me to simply look at them & remember that I have loved playing with buttons since I was a child sitting at my precious Grandmothers knee. Also, look at those wonderful crystals next to the cup (they will be listed in my Etsy Shop when I get it finished) & another passion... vintage salt shakers. There is a tiny pair just waiting to be enjoyed.

A couple of the tiny Charlotte's peeking out of the glass buttons.

All of us crafters know the frustration of finding what you need... I bought a lazy susan at The Container store (wrapped some vintage lace around the outside to make it pretty) & now all my glues & bottles of Stickles are at my fingertips. LOVE IT!!!! Why didn't I do this sooner? No more digging in drawers or storage bags.

A footed crystal compote holds some amazing buttons that I just have to marvel at from time to time. Another footed bowl holds a pile of vintage seam binding colors that just speak HAPPY to my heart. Easy to just pull a color, snip & create... And then there are big containers of glass glitter ready for putting SPARKLE on any project. Can a girl ever have too much glitter?

Head over heels over HEADS! China Doll Heads that is. My Hubby, son & the GRANDSONS don't get it with the heads. But, again it is a Grandmother thing. My precious Grandmother made me a china doll when I was a child. Now I adopt all that I can find. The boys think it is weird that I have a jar of heads & parts.

I think they are pretty sitting among the flowers (& you can see a tiny pebble I picked up on the beach in California).

And then to the right of my workspace is this vintage shelf & below that you can see the black bag on wheels (love the pocket for all the markers to be held in place) that I use when I am going to have to pack up to go to a craft event somewhere else. Sure is better to have it on wheels so as to not have to carry it. There is a flowered scrapbook I am working on right now.

Here's a close up of the shelf with a few more heads, a baby photo of my Mother, a pin cushion made from my precious Grandmothers old sugar bowl & some of the Fairy's in a Jar (from the tutorial from sweet Dawn at The Feathered Nest) that I had made for a sale. I am glad I had some left because I LOVE them.

I found this vintage child's dress last week when shopping with Lisa & Pat Close. My friend Diane Cook uses things like this to display her jewelry & I think that is an AWESOME IDEA that I am going to borrow (Thanks sweetie). The dress is made of what they called "Lawn". So sheer & beautiful with amazing lace & hand work on it. Can't you just imagine the precious child that wore this & how dressed up she must have felt.

Now remember I said this is my laundry room & here you see the shelf Hubby put up for my cookbooks. It it a double set of shelves which spans the whole space above the washer & dryer. Do you think I have a few? And also a great place for other little favorites. A crazed plate with pansies, my garden sprite reading her book, a Princess of Quite A Lot statue and...

This little elf that used to sit on my Grandmothers shelf. Somehow his feet were broken off but, I have always LOVED him (I used to put him in a pot of ferns or flowers & let him peek out). See the look on his face? That's kind of the deer in the headlights look I had when I started that "GO CLEAN IT UP" project.

Across from the washer & dryer (& the shelves you just saw) is a 6 foot bookcase with pretty storage boxes(full of vintage lace & velvets for ruched roses) on top. And above that is my Grandmothers vase collection that always hung on that shelf in her kitchen. I LOVE being surrounded by memories!

And on the bookshelves... STUFF!

Vintage silverware, a jar of eggs, bird statue, baby shoes & gloves, & a little journal made by a friend.

A bowl of BLING waiting to be turned into jewelry.

A martini glass with a scent bottle that wants to be a necklace & some chandalier crystals some trim & a jar of glass beads waiting to become soldered word charms.

Well, that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed the visit to my studio. And Karen THANK YOU for MAKING me clean it up. I have sooooooooooooo enjoyed using my space again. And I promise I won't let it get out of control again (at least not anytime soon). I'm off to visit all of you & see the wonder of where you create. Please leave me a comment & let me know you were here & what you thought. What was your favorite part? Be sure to go HERE & see the others playing. They are listed on the right side of Karen's Blog & will be there all year so you have time to visit & revisit for inspiration anytime you want. HUGS!

Happy Trails To You... An Adorable Gift from Sandy

Remember these boots (BDay gift from Hubby -see June 1 Post)? Remember Sandy Navarro? One of the BLESSINGS of all blessings from attending HeArt of Communion Art Event put on by The Gilded Life at "The Church" (home of Debbie & Shea). I met sweet Sandy at this event & although she lives hundreds of miles away in California (how does it happen that Sooooooooooooooo many of my buddies live out there?) we talk often & are developing an amazing friendship.

She sent me this adorable purse for my birthday. And she made that precious card to the left of the purse. When she saw the boots she said she KNEW I NEEDED this purse.

Yep, wrapped in red tissue & snuggled in that brown crinkle set this little bit of WESTERN BLING!

Here's a close up of the front. On the back it says "Happy Trails To You Until We Meet Again"

The other Cowgirls will be pea green I'm sure. So girls... What are you wearing? This jewel is metal & round. And TINY! Just enough room for 1.Keys 2. Credit Card (cash) 3. Lipstick and 4. Cell Phone. What else does a girl need? WHY do we insist in carrying the kitchen sink?

My precious card that Sandy made that reads "SO YOU'RE GONIN WITHOUT ME" Have a blowout time at Paper Cowgirl.

The card just sits perfectly in the bottom of the purse. I do believe that this needs a couple of coats of resin & to be permanently attached. So, every time I see it... I THINK OF SWEET SANDY! Girlfriend, it'll be just like you're there with me. THANK YOU for your generous, FUN gift but, most of all... for the gift of your friendship. And that goes to so many of you out there. My friends (& I consider so many of you friends) are so important to me. Happy Trails!