The giveaway clock is ticking...

Just a little reminder...today is the last day to enter my art supply giveaway.

Nature is amazing

If you just take a little time and look a little closer, you'll find a beautiful and wondrous world all around you.

June Dress

It's still June and my dress is complete!  Now I'm all caught up with the other gals in the Dress-up Project.

I wanted a very full skirt for this one. I drew a circle with a dinner plate on a shirt that I had already scavenged the sleeves off for wine bottle gift bags.  It took some tricky sewing to get the skirt attached to the top. But, of course, the black lace trim covers my poor sewing job.

Be sure to hop on over to the Alice and Camilla blog to check out the other June dresses.

Fishy friends

We figured out what to do with the giant bowl that formerly held the corks.

Meet Sheldon, Speedy, Sherman and Goldie.

We had the rock and coral piece but the kids bought the fish and food themselves.

Friday Freebie

I think these would make interesting backgrounds for ATC's. 

Another use could be on a greeting card for a man. It's always a little harder to find something masculine.

No matter how you choose to use these images...Enjoy!

                                           Click on image for larger version.

Pesky deer

Not too long ago I snapped a picture of a deer that had just wandered out of our backyard.
I had commented on how skinny I thought she was.
Well, she seems to be working on fattening herself up a bit by eating my flowers!!!

She ate the top and one whole side of my strawberry jar of petunias as well as half the leaves off my hostas. I saw her bed in the grass yesterday just outside the landscape rocks. She could just lay there and munch away on a hosta.

Book purse

In my spare time today...yeah right... let's try that line again.

In the time I took neglecting other projects around the house, I made this book purse. I recently picked up the book at a library sale in town. I liked that it was square. I believe it's a French author. 

I used some white with tiny black polka dot fabric for the lining. There is just something about red, white and black that is such classic beauty to me.

Day dreaming and a giveaway

The other day I was picturing all the things I'd love to do to our house. Of course, since that money tree hasn't taken root, we're still in the day dreaming stage. I think I'd start with our downstairs bathroom since it's the smallest room in the house. I really want a new vanity for starters.


I really like the look of this one. I'd put a skirt around the inside perimeter to hide the essentials.  I'd also love to wallpaper the wall with book pages. Wouldn't that be fun!

Ok...enough with the day dreaming for today. Let's get on with the giveaway...

---

The CSN stores have given me the great opportunity host a giveaway open to U.S. and Canada residents right here, right now!

I checked out the art supplies and came up with these great items:

Pentel Oil pastel set with carrying case, assorted colors, 36 pastels per set - PENPHN36

Prismacolor Brush Tip Marker, Assorted Colors, Eight/Set - SAN1736674

BIENFANG Sketch Pad, 11 x 14, 100 Sheets per Pad - EPIR237130

So, how do you win these art supplies? 

• 1st entry- leave a comment on this post...make sure there is some way for me to contact you
• 2nd optional entry- become a follower of my blog then post another comment telling me you did so...if you already follow tell me that in a comment as well
• 3rd optional entry- blog about this giveaway and post the link in a comment

Please post your comment before midnight central time on Wednesday June 30th to be counted. The winner will be chosen using a random number generator. The winner's name will be posted July 1st.

That's it ...  Good luck!

Garden beauty

Before my garage sale I made some flags from scraps to put up by the street so people would know the sale was here. As it turned out, we had so much stuff the flags weren't needed. They've sat on my sewing machine case until today. I decided to pretty up the garden a bit.

Incidentally...the garden is doing very well. I have green tomatoes on all the plants and a couple yellow pepper on one plant. I've been harvesting herbs nearly daily. The lettuce is looking pretty poor but I'm going to try and let it dry out a little more. I think it's not well enough drained.

I picked up a small stoneware pitcher from a garage sale last week. The lady didn't want to bargain much with me because she said it was made by a famous MN potter named Robert Briscoe. I'd never heard of him but looked it up when I got home. I paid $5 for it...she said she paid over $30.
Last evening, I went around the yard and picked a pretty bouquet for my new pitcher.

Little bits of this and that

I've been working on random projects as time permits since it's summer break for the kids.


I made another cork board. An 8x10 version this time. I tried out cutting the long "stem" off the champagne corks. This posed more of a challenge in the layout. I still have a bag of corks from the giant fish bowl...amazing how many were in there.



Four cartons of fire starters made from sawdust and leftover candles for our chimenea.They work really slick. Just break off one section and it adds enough fuel to get the fire going really good. Great way to use up those candle bits that won't burn anymore.


This time I had quite a bit of extra wax due mostly to a couple of really poor candles I bought a while back. They were both the jarred variety and kept drowning the wick in the puddled wax. Frustrating!

I decided to try a citronella candle for the deck once I found the wicking and citronella oil in my candle making box. I reused one of those old candle glass jar for this experiment.






PS...what do you think of my new signature?

Friday Freebie

Just look at that car! Love the grill and headlights! I bet the gal has bobby socks and saddle shoes on as well.

Can't wait to see some art made from this leaning woman photo.

May Dress

I'm almost there!! One more dress and I'll be caught up with the rest of the Dress-up Project participants.

This dress I wanted to be kind of sassy. Maybe prom dress like.
First I adhered a scrap hand dyed fabric from my stash to the cereal box form.
Next I got out a couple silk flower arrangements likely from the 80's or early 90's judging by the color. I pulled them apart and stapled the folded flowers in layers to form the skirt flounces.
The pearl and lace ribbon was used to cover the staples. See you'd have never known my secret had I not spilled the beans!!

My only issue with the dress is how to hang it in my yet to be finished wardrobe. I do have a small clothes pin that can work in a pinch. I was considering fish line...then it would be like those plastic strap things that sometimes come on woman's clothing.
Regardless of how I hang it...I love it.
Sassy, flirty but in a youthful, more innocent way.

Be sure to check out the other May Dresses over at the Alice and Camilla Blog.

April Dress

Check out my latest dress for the Dress-up Project.

I mostly used recycled materials for this one. The  "fabric" of the dress is the paper my boy and I made last summer. I cut out a front and back then sprayed them with the one bottle of Glimmer Mists I own. :)

I stamped across the dress lightly with a script stamp and distress ink for extra interest. I "stuffed" the dress with some tissue to give it a bit of dimension before gluing it together.

The fringe bottom was created by folding little pieces of cut tablcloth.

The necklace was a pierced earring. All I had to do was take off the post and ta-da...necklace.

Make sure and stop by the Alice and Camilla blog to check out all the other April dresses!

Garage Sale Treasures

On a whim, I went in search of some garage sales with my neighbor.  Yeah, I know, what was I thinking. I just had a sale myself to get rid of stuff. We have more room now so I have to do my best to fill it back up.

I did very well in just 2 hours. I got all you see here plus a nightstand for my son's room for the small price of $22.40. 

• New Stampin' Up! Sunflower set
• Stampin' Up! set of distressing tools
• square frame
• sunflower floral spray
• craft paints new or barely used
• candle
• vintage books
• cigar box
• terracotta saucers
• stack of white cardstock
• picnic basket
• canvas boards

Since garage sales and thrift stores are the only places I'm allowing myself to purchase supplies this year I think I really scored!

Friday Freebie

Today I'm offering you a photo I call Family Unit for use in your artwork.

I really like this photo. They are all dressed up in their Sunday Best yet they are sitting on the front steps so casually. From the water stains running down the side of the house I'm guessing the steps weren't too clean either. Poor woman had to work hard to get those stains out of their clothes. 

I'd love to see any art you've created using my Friday Freebies!! 

Gothic Arch

I just put the finishing touches on my Gothic Arches for the 7th Anniversary swap on ABC. I've never worked in this shape before. My goal was to get these in the mail by tomorrow and I think I'll meet it.  That is, unless chaos reins since it's the first non-school day of the summer.

Flowers all around

On the deck, we have lots of pots of flowers. I love the splashes of color.

The tiny potted rose that graces our table was given by our next door neighbor when my dad passed away. 

The pink hydrangea was given by some of our other neighbors at that same time.  I potted it this year so I can over-winter it in the house and then plant it in the ground next year. **fingers crossed**










I couldn't help myself at the greenhouse and had to buy the Gerbera Daisy.  I have it in a little galvanized bucket.  Love it!

See the white petunias in the pot next to it. They are some of the ones I started from saved seeds.

This grouping has herbs and flowers. The super full pot I bought at Trader Joe's. It has rosemary, thyme and some very dead sage. Oops. Forgot to water it for a couple days. It didn't like that.
See the goofy plant in the yellow pot. It's rosemary as well. I've had it for a few years now. It is the oddest looking thing but it keeps on going. So many people I've talked to can't keep their rosemary growing over winter. For some wonderfully crazy reason...mine does fine. Not pretty but still fine.

Then, of course, we have the volunteer flowers that come up here and there.  My girl pulled this one out from under the edge of the deck. She planted it in our garden box at my urging. We'll have to see if it lives.

Going around to the front of the house we have a beautiful azalea bush. I can't take credit for planting it but I'll certainly take the kudos for nurturing it over the years.  I had lots of comments on it at the garage sale.

I didn't buy an petunias this year. Every single one I have out is a saved seed from last year. I ended up with white, 3 shades of purple and a purple-n-white edged variety. The funny thing is that I never had any purple last year. They were all hybrid colors last year but no multi-color ones.

Lastly we have the large pots along the front walk. Last year I had giant geraniums that my folks had over-wintered for several years. I just don't have that kind of space.

Hope you enjoyed the walk through my yard!

Cork board

As I said in the previous post...I had a garage sale. One of my neighbors brought up a gigantic fish bowl full of corks they had saved over the years to put on the sale. My mind started whirling right away. I knew I could make something from both the corks and the fish bowl.

I had to buy it.


This afternoon my girl and I went to work. I brought out an old frame I had in the storage room. I set her to work painting the backing black while I applied some crackle glaze to the wood frame. We were in the sun so everything was drying super quick. I had my girl squeeze 4 nearly empty jars of burgundy craft paint into a yogurt cup while I cleaned my brush. The crackle turned out quite well. Not so much crackled as just distressed...which is perfectly fine with me.

After I'd finished I called up yet another neighbor to come over and check out my handy work when...



We turned around and this is what we saw in the neighboring yard.  She looked so thin...either it's a yearling that lost it's spots or a doe with young fawns?!? still nursing maybe?  I'm just speculating but it was so odd to see in the middle of the day...lawn mowers buzzing all around. Beautiful but odd.