Ta Da! Sound the Trumpets!

Okay, maybe it's too early for trumpets as I don't have May done yet but I feel soooo good that I got this one done. April done and only one to go.

April is my Easter basket. This is the Easter basket I have had for 54 years. Yep, I've kept my childhood basket and have used it many times too. It's very faded and small compared to many you see today but, it's mine. At one time this basket was bright yellow and purple. Sometimes little chicks would be tied to the handle and once I remember we each got a sock bunny tucked into the grass. We had peeps too - one row to each of us kids. Not a whole package or multiple packs but one row and we thought we were lucky. A chocolate bunny or cross came in it each year and jelly beans which my dad loved (I didn't until many years later and the new jelly beans came out). We also had a hardboiled egg tucked in which we had decorated the night before. That may not seem like such a big deal but in my family we would normally use two hard boiled eggs to make 8 sandwiches for school lunches and yes, you could see the bread through the bits of egg! So a whole egg in our basket was a treat plus we got another one or two for breakfast on Easter. MMmmm. I had one sister who plowed her way through her candy in no time where I was a nibbler. I wanted it to last. (Maybe that's why I buy supplies today and don't use them but save them til they go bad on me).

I made my new basket for this page with real weaving. The purple bands were peyote (probably should have done brick stitch, and the yellow bands are ndebele stitch. I started them at one edge and worked across weaving as I went. Then I came back and tacked the strip down to form the curve I needed. My bunny was done separately and sewn on . The handle was strings of beads I couched down.

Hope you've enjoyed the look-see. I am always glad to have visitors.

New Post!

I finally have something new to share. It's my new inchie for the InchybyInch blog group. The theme for this week was to include a hat. I usually take forever to think of something different to do but decided too many don't get made because of that. I figured K.I.S.S. was the answer for me. This is my result.

The face started as a circle that I cut a slit in to make it more 3-D but when I glued it down to the backing I smooshed it too much and flattened it out. Just a simple paper folded hat like we all made when we were kids.


The picture with my cat shows how I am doing my inchies now. I cut an empty facial tissue box into squares and ATC backs. This way the backside has something nice on it and I am recycling a tiny bit. Someone (I wish I could remember who) said they put their inchies in their grandmother's candy dish. The only way to keep them looking nice that way is to make the backs look nice too. I thought the candy dish idea was a good one so I found an easy way to make the backs nice. I certainly didn't need to try to do both sides; I'd never get one done!

Hope you enjoyed your visit. Come again!

Inchies

Well, I am home and getting back to getting my art projects done. I have missed a few of the Inchie challenges so thought I would try to get this one done even though it's late in the week.

The week's challenge was "key". I thought about it and always wanting to do things a little out of the norm (some say I am contrary but I just say I am moving to the beat of a different drum - or orchestra!) I decided to use a music key. Since I really don't know much about music I asked my husband and he found something I could use. So here it is, a key in G major for music.

Now I am off to InchybyInch to post it there. Sing, I mean swing, on by and see what others have done with the challenge. Just look at the comments and click on the links others have left. Enjoy the show!

Out to Lunch

Hi everyone. I went on a vacation to California. I stopped first in Oceanside where my sister lives as my brother was stopping there on his way from seeing his son come back from Iraq to his home in New York. My brother was going back home to Hawaii and I had a chance to see him for a couple of days. We had a nice party weekend as I and four of my sibs were all together with some of the rest of the family. Only one sister wasn't there.



Now I am in Simi Valley at my daughter's home. I'm finding myself busy and not getting to my crafts and blogging. I had the delusion that I could do it all and have come down to earth now to let you all know I can't!! I hope to get back in the swing of things again real soon. I miss visiting you all.



Happy 4th of July to all the Americans and hope you ALL have happy days till I return.



Aloha, Ciao, Sayonara, Adios and goodbye for now.....

Old Quilt

I have been trying all morning to get these pictures uploaded. I
finally checked my camera to find it was set on the biggest file size. I changed that and then went and cropped my pictures to make them smaller. That helped but I still had to upload them one at a time as evidently Blogger couldn't handle them even two at a time (I tried).


Sue at From the Magpie's Nest shared a picture of her great-grandmother's Wedding Ring quilt so I thought I would pull out my grandmother's quilt and share pictures of it plus take a poll to see what you all think I should do with it. (That's if I can get the poll thingy to work. If not I'll have to amend my post).


My grandmother was not one for communication so we know nothing other than that she made this quilt - sometime! It's in one piece but as you can see the edges and some of the pieces are a bit ragged. The quilting is gone in large parts of the quilt. The only way I see to restore it would be to requilt the whole thing, replace a few patches and rebind it. I don't feel like it would be Grandma Minnie O'Keefe's quilt anymore. I don't like leaving it sit folded up in the linen closet though.

Oooooh, I just figured out what my May page for the BJP is going to be! Yay, I didn't have a clue what to do and now I know. Stay tuned!

Let me get back to Grandma's quilt. I think she used pretty colors in the quilt and you can see some of the patterns in the fabrics. I really wish she would have shared more of herself with us.


I have some sisters who think this quilt is valuable and would bring in a tidy sum of money which in their way of thinking would be divided among six of us....yeah, they just really don't know it is only of sentimental value but they don't do any crafts at all so they really wouldn't know.

Okay, go take a look at the poll.

Visitor

We had a visitor today. This little roadrunner needed a drink so he stopped by our goat bucket.
Isn't he cute?

Seeing the nature is the best part of living in this rural area. At least, as long as it isn't a snake or a scorpion!

Inchies

Here is my inchie for the week. We were given a pattern shown here in purple, to use as the base for our inchie. I layered several papers uniting them by using blue chalk ink on their edges. This was a challenge to use all the shapes in order on one inch!

If you want to see more of the inchies visit Inchy By Inch and why don't you give one a try?

April Started

I have finally started on my April page for the Bead Journal Project. This one had my stymied for a while. I had trouble envisioning how to go about making this one. Flat embroidery didn't seem to be the right way to go.

I want to thank the BJPers who offered support and advice when I called on them over at the BJP blog. It made me feel really good to know I wasn't alone out here.

So, I started by making my chocolate bunny shown here on the right. I figure I can stitch him down wherever he might fit when the basket is done. And, I have now started on the basket. Hopefully, the work will
move along briskly now. Keep your fingers crossed!

Inchies

Hi everyone. This week's inchy's theme was a "peg bag" (clothespin bag to some of us) in the shape of a baby's kimono or shirt. I googled for kimono and came up with a site that had lots of different clothing items on it called Origami Club. Check it out.

I thought I'd go with the idea of the shirt and used some floral wrapping paper. The flowers didn't end up showing up on such a small piece but it looked hawaiian so I went with that.

I added a few size 15 seed beads and ran around the edge with a pink Prismacolor pencil, added some tiny words (I didn't know I could print out such tiny print and have it come out clear - you learn something more every day!) and I was done. Come and join in the fun over at Inchybyinch. The more the merrier!

Tagged!

I've been tagged! And before I could reply to Robin's I got tagged again by Mary Tafoya! They were for the same meme so I get to answer once for both. Here are the rules:


The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.”

I thought I'd add a little more fun and made a tag to go along for some visual interest.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
Ten years ago this same time in June I was celebrating
my dad's eightieth birthday. It was really a family reunion and my daughter did most of
the work putting it together. We held it at his house with music, lots of food and the pool.
2. What are five things on my to do list?
a. Bead journal pages. I've got the picture ready, the beads picked out and am ready to
start beading my April page (yeah, I got more behind than I intended).
b. Catch up on art journal class pages. At least I'm an equal opportunity behinder!!
c. Make bread. I made pizza dough last night for my husband and now bread sounds so
good, I just have to have some.
d. Take a walk around the block. That's a 2 1/2 mile walk and I have to do it early or it'll
be too hot. I don't walk too often but I've been wanting to so it's time.
e. Clean the cat box and replenish her water bottle.

3. Snacks I enjoy: Mmmm, popcorn! I like it buttered but that's not good for me so I just use
butter flavoring. I hotair pop my corn and spray on just a bit of the buttery flavored oil.
I also like to munch on cookies and trying to stay low fat that means cinnamon graham
crackers or zweiback (yep, those old baby cookies- they are delicious). Cake comes in
next place as a favorite. Mind you, I didn't mention fruit or veggies. I might eat them
trying to stay low fat but they aren't my favorites!

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
a. I'd pay off my kids and my siblings mortgages. The only way I'd become a billionaire
would be through a lottery (which I don't play but that's not the point here) and it
would be fun to surprise them all instead of telling them about it.
b. I'd go to bead classes wherever they might be and have lots of fun with them.
c. I would have fun giving to charities - the ones I already give to and the ones I'd like to
but can't afford to now.
d. I'd start a bead shop where all the profits went to charity. I'd call it Beads For All or
something like that.

5. Places I have lived:
Born in Long Beach, California
Moved to Honolulu, Hawaii (my dad was in the new Air Force)
Vacaville, California
San Diego, California
El Cajon, California
Oakland, California (I'm just married)
Long Beach again,
El Cajon again where I had my first baby (son)
Novato, California where I had my second child
Great Lakes, Illinois
Chanahon, Illinois
Sanford, Florida
Santee, California
Sasebo, Japan
El Cajon, California again
Pacific Beach, California
Lismore, Minnesota
Lakeside, California
Chugwater, Wyoming
Kingman, Arizona!!
Ta da! Finito! On my way to California. Don't know when but I'll get back there someday to stay!

6. Peeps I want to know more about:

Dee D of http://beadsalot.blogspot.com/
Genevieve of http://gencreations.blogspot.com/
CC of http://hrhcc.blogspot.com/
KV of http://artfulmuse.blogspot.com/
Fannie of http://fanniecarte.blogspot.com/
Barbara of http://demibrix.blogspot.com/2008/06/so-simple.html
Fiona of http://www.magickdiva.blogspot.com/

And I think I will leave it at that! Now to leave a message for each of you.

Thankyou!

I want to thank Grace of Gracebeading. She sent me this note and these beads which were tucked into the little silver box. She was thanking me for the encouragement I gave to her by visiting her blog during the past year. I enjoyed visiting her blog; it's a nice one! She's always showing what she is doing for one cause or another which puts me to shame! She certainly didn't need to send me anything but I will enjoy the items none-the-less.

The card is a great idea for an idea jumping-off point and the envelope is so pretty it will certainly find it's way onto an inchie, an ATC or some other art piece! The lampwork beads don't show up real well but they are beautiful and will look really nice whether in jewelry or some other project. The box is perforated and I can imagine taking these seed beads plus some others and making a fringed top on it.

Thank you so much Grace. When I do make something with these items I'll post it for everyone to see.

Inchies

The theme for this week's inchy was "fairy". I used a picture of my daughter as she dressed up as a dark fairy for Halloween this year.

I took away the wings she had as thy didn't look very nice on the inchie and added some cut from purple petals on floral gift wrap. I used one of the inchie blanks I won from Nina at Purple Faerie Paper Crafts (from a drawing on last week's inchy challenge over at InchybyInch) and covered it with some green paper with purple polka dots. I added some micro glitter to her wings and edged the inchie and the photo cut-out with purple chalk ink. With everything glued onto the base I think it turned out pretty well.

As I was looking through my pictures for this one I found lots that could be converted into fairies so I think I will make a set of them when I have a little more time. Maybe I'll do everyone in my daughter's family (five people and some pets) and turn it into a gift somehow. Oh, the ideas pop up all the time but getting myself organized so I can follow through...well, that's where my problem lies!

I've added a picture of the tiara as I made it for her for this year's costume. It turned out a little heavier and grand than I intended. My daughter loves petite and feminine over grand. The large light beads along the center were from my mother's jewelry so my daughter has a bit of her grandmother with her.

It seems I ended up echoing Purple Faerie Paper Crafts. I didn't intend to but my daughter's outfit was purple and she fit the bill. I do want to thank Nina here for offering the prize of the blanks and a rubber stamp for inchies of a woman silhouette (I almost used it but then thought of my daughter's outfit).

Come and join us and have a "little" fun!

Winners From My Teaparty

Where did the time go? I haven't quite finished my teacup but it's coming along. I hope to post a picture of it tomorrow. The winners are:

Magpie Sue who wins the teacup magnet/pin.

CC who wins the sea anemone ATC

and KV who wins the tea ATC.

Congratulations to all of you. I'll get in touch with you to get your addresses.

Thanks to everyone who joined with me to celebrate my one year anniversary of blogging. I heard of teas I didn't know existed (I enjoy several different kinds but Lipton's original is my stand-by).

Weekly Inchie

This week's theme for Inchybyinch was to do something with the mail post. I had only one stamp to use for this and it was too big for an inchie so I made a couple of tiny envelopes and a letter to go into one of them. Enlarged here they look a bit sloppy so perhaps next time I'll work under a magnifying lamp when I want this much detail.

The background is some leftover background I made for my Christmas cards. I had a one inch strip so I cut it into several squares. I think it's generic enough that it will be used for some future inchies.

This week there is an added bonus besides the fun of making these inchies. Purple Faerie Paper Crafts has sponsored us and is offering some blank inchies and a rubber stamp to the name drawn from those who link back to Inchybyinch and Purple Faierie Paper Crafts. Sounds like a good deal to me. See what fun you'd have if you'd join us?

One Year of Blogging

Wow. I have been blogging for one year as of May 18th! I didn't realize it until I checked after visiting Grace's blog Gracebeading. She is celebrating her one-year anniversary so I thought I'd better check out when I started. On May 18, 2007, I made my first post: Hi! I am on my first flight with the blogging world. Joining a beading journal group got me into this. Please excuse me if I ruffle a few feathers. I would like some smooth soaring but computers are a challenge to me. Here goes......... whee! Well it has been an eagle's flight! I've soared to places and people I never dreamed to and have grown so much, enjoyed so much and learned so much! I've made new friends, joined new groups and have even taken classes after finding mentions of this or that on someone or another's blog. What a world we live in! It's wonderful and amazing. Don't you agree?

Like so many others who have reached a milestone on blogging whether it's one year or 100 posts, I want to celebrate. Time for a tea party (yeah, I am one wild kind of party gal!) so leave me a comment telling me what your favorite tea is (or party beverage for you wild ones out there) and on the evening of May 31st I will pick 3 names from my party hat for prizes.

The third name drawn will receive the first ATC I made which falls right into the theme of my celebration - Tea For Two.

The second name drawn will receive my sea glass fabric ATC which I call Sea Anemones.

The first name drawn (I did this in reverse order as that is how my pictures lined up on the right - I really am not contrary!) will receive something I am working on right now. You can see the start of it on the right. I am not sure how it will turn out so I started two just in case (even after almost a year of doing bead embroidery I am still unsure about a piece). I plan to turn it into a
magnet but I can leave it off till the first name drawn tells me she/he wants it like that.

So, are we ready to party? Leave me a comment and a way to get back to you in case your name is drawn.