Thank you, everyone, for your sweet continual comments this past year. Congratulations to all my winners! Please remember to contact me to give me your mailing addresses.
Karen at My Desert Cottage is hosting a party today! The theme is "Where Women Create." I visited Karen's blog this morning and her studio is a absolutely amazing! It's a work of art! I am a guest at Karen's party. So, I have agreed to post a photo of my humble creative space. Well, the place where I go is actually down in my basement. It is a place where I can invite my friends to play, laugh and create our treasures.
Where I Blog
My art work is sometimes created on this desk, and sometimes I knit on my back porch, and sometimes I create in my office. I can't seem to stay in one place. Now, the art supplies are stored (using that word loosely) in plastic drawers in my "art room" as I call it. Sometimes when the weather turns cooler, I can't work in the basement because I get too cold, and I start something upstairs in my office. And, other times I work at the dining room table. I wish I could be more disciplined and stay just in one place only because I make a mess all over the house.
I loved participating in this event. Because I am out of town still, I am trying to post from the upper peninsula of Michigan. Finding high speed internet is a challenge, and working from a lap top is not familiar to me. I am hoping that this may become an annual event so we all can show how our rooms evolve and improve. Thanks for inviting me, Karen, to share.
Wow! It's my one year blog anniversary! Come on and celebrate with me....while browsing through one of the most glorious web-sites. Experience the beauty of lavender for yourself. Here you will find the listings of Oregon Lavender Destinations. You will be able visit one or two or all of the lavender farms in Oregon.
Because I savor the magical scent of lavender, I would like to have a "Lavender-Themed" Giveaway. I have been busily attending to my crop of lilac, purple, and fuscia toned items for weeks and would like to share some of this magic with you!!
Let's begin our journey by walking through the fields of Cottage Farm Villa. Her blog is absolutely a heavenly place. You will lose yourself in it's beauty!
Walking the paths of lavender......how cool is this?
Or just smelling the hypnotic scent.....can you imagine?
Thank you so very much for encouraging me this past year to continue posting and not quitting. Your heartfelt and lovely comments are what makes all the work preparing for a post worthwhile. As a small token of my appreciation I am giving away a little of myself and a few items that all make me melt in the scent of lavender. I have had just a glorious time learning how to actually start a blog, to post, to take better photos, and to really share my creative journey with everyone.
If it wasn't for the encouragement of Debra Abel and Terri Gauthier, I probably would never have experienced all of this blogging craziness. I have loved meeting y'all, seeing your amazing artwork, and really getting to know how you think about your artwork and your families. I love seeing your homes, and where you play!
I am so proud of myself to be able to say I "made it" to one year. Thank you everyone for stopping by so many times, even though I may not have acknowledged your visit.
I just love doing this! Thanks, Deb and Terri for introducing me to the blogging world.
And now for my humble offerings, I present.....
GIVEAWAY #1
Lavender growing kit, two lilac dishcloths, my "Secret Garden" journal, lavender-wisteria soap, 2 spools of lavender ribbon and one lime green Nouveau ribbon.
GIVEAWAY #2
My "Marie Antoinette" journal, two white dishcloths with lilac stripe, lavender-wisteria soap.
GIVEAWAY #3
Dream journal, Beauty shopping list pad, Dream note cards, miniature Marie Antoinette purse-sized journal, fuscia dishcloths, lavender-wisteria soap, one lime green Nouveau ribbon, and one lilac with green polka dot ribbon.
Please leave a comment on this post by Wednesday, July 22, 2009 at Midnight. I will announce the winner on Monday, July 27th. Remember to leave a way for me to contact you.
And, now it's time for me to head for home to watch a wonderful film, with the scent of lavender on my clothes. I love sinking into the couch, and drifting off into the world of the sisterhood of women.
Enjoy your day visiting my dream of lavender fields!
Back in the 90's, I often used to make handmade envelopes. I find creating these envelopes very stimulating! They are unusual, fun, and amusing subjects often appear in your artwork. Even now, I like to use old calendars, larger magazines, thick-paged catalogs, and even use those scrapbook papers that come in those huge paper pads that are just sitting around with not-so-lovely designs.
Envelope milling is a great way to recycle something that otherwise would be tossed aside as trash, but with a keen imagination you can create something "environmentally friendly" and beautiful.
By giving yourself a stash of envelopes that you have carefully made, you will find so many ways and reasons to use them. Can you imagine mailing a letter to a friend in a special envelope that may even bring yourself to correspond the old-fashioned way?
These pink envelopes with note cards were on sale at our local craft store, but these amazing royalty free decorative borders were purchased at Angela Harris' inspirational YourAngil Etsy shop. I love visiting her beautiful blog and her tags are just too cool.
It will be fun to find an old magazine at a garage sale and know that the work of its photographers and illustrators will longer be destined for the trash can. Your envelopes will be enjoyed and admired by you and their lucky recipients.
I have three templates. A note card size, a personal letter size, and then a business letter size. A very useful book called "The Envelope Mill" by Haila Harvey introduced me to this obsession of creating art mail envelopes. I am not sure if it is out of print, but possibly you can find a copy from Amazon or Ebay. Or, just make your own template to plastic.
In her book, she lists more than 50 ways to use your hand-crafted envelopes, including a handmade stationery set, reminder notes, coupon keepers, bank statement holders, recipe mailers, and trading card keepers.
Great magazines to get you started could be Victoria (wish I never threw mine away now), Vanity Fair, Veranda, Vogue, Food & Wine, National Geographic and those gorgeous Neiman Marcus catalogs at Christmas. Once you start making envelopes, the number of subscriptions may suddenly increase! Plus, you may never have to actually buy an real envelope again!
I think it would be fabulous to make a stash of envelopes by making color copies of my favorite magazines. You may need to line the inside to make them sturdier though. I would suggest spray adhesive on two pieces of paper, press the sticky sides together, and then drawing the template design on the two-paper thickness.
With a little pre-planning, I would love to make envelopes from photos of places I have visited, and then mail them from a vacation spot from where I may be sitting! A picture is worth a thousand words, or even a thousand miles.
I don't think I ever showed you photos of my grandaughter, Lauren's "Enchanted Birthday Party!" She is a little pistol, as you can probably detect from these few photos. I honestly feel that she may become an international gymnist in the future.
She loved her cupcakes, and really was enjoying all the singing of "Happy Birthday to Lauren" melody this year. There was such a sparkle in her eye!
Visiting my grandkids is such an adventure. The glittering sparkles are designed by Vera Lim Designs. What a difference these stars can do for a simple photo!
After attending so many Mad Tea Parties this past weekend with "Fanciful Twist," it is such a odd coincidence that the conceptual art photos of Tim Burton's newest movie in the making have been released.
Oh yeah, his new masterpiece "Alice in Wonderland" is scheduled for release, March 5, 2010. I can hardly stand to wait that long! This is going to be, without a doubt, his grandest achievement.
Helena Bonham Carter has been chosen to be The Red Queen! She was a simian in (Planet of the Apes), a murderous baker of meat pies (Sweeny Todd) for her fiance, and now she takes on the role of The Red Queen who loves nothing better to do than scream, "Off With Their Heads!" Did you know her children, Billy-Ray and Neil, will have cameos in the movie?
Lavender growing kit, two lilac dishcloths, my "Secret Garden" journal, lavender-wisteria soap, 2 spools of lavender ribbon and one lime green Nouveau ribbon.
Dream journal, Beauty shopping list pad, Dream note cards, miniature Marie Antoinette purse-sized journal, fuscia dishcloths, lavender-wisteria soap, one lime green Nouveau ribbon, and one lilac with green polka dot ribbon.
By giving yourself a stash of envelopes that you have carefully made, you will find so many ways and reasons to use them. Can you imagine mailing a letter to a friend in a special envelope that may even bring yourself to correspond the old-fashioned way?
These pink envelopes with note cards were on sale at our local craft store, but these amazing royalty free decorative borders were purchased at Angela Harris' inspirational YourAngil Etsy shop. I love visiting her beautiful blog and her tags are just too cool.
I have three templates. A note card size, a personal letter size, and then a business letter size. A very useful book called "The Envelope Mill" by Haila Harvey introduced me to this obsession of creating art mail envelopes. I am not sure if it is out of print, but possibly you can find a copy from Amazon or Ebay. Or, just make your own template to plastic.
I think it would be fabulous to make a stash of envelopes by making color copies of my favorite magazines. You may need to line the inside to make them sturdier though. I would suggest spray adhesive on two pieces of paper, press the sticky sides together, and then drawing the template design on the two-paper thickness.
