Because it is a woman's prerogative to change her mind, I've returned to my roots! You can find me at Tender Arts Studio!

I captured a fairy today!

Well, actually, she flew in through an open window. I tried to keep her as long as I could, but I could see she was longing to return to her meadow, so I set her free. She sure was cute, huh?

Truthfully, I made her for a fun doll challenge. The pattern was a free download from Judi Ward. I couldn't resist! My little Maggie-moo, my roommate's 13 year old daughter, made the wings for me. I'm so happy with how she turned out.

I'll be interested in hearing how little Fairy Wendy did. Wish her luck!

It's Valentine's Day- Have A Heart!

How sweet are these little darlings? Even more special because they were made from my mother's childhood coverlet. It's not a real pieced quilt, the design is printed, but it is still very vintage and very dear. I estimate that the coverlet dates to 1945. Amazing that my grandmother kept it for so long and then my mom. By the time I got it, it was disintegrating, but I'm so happy to give it a new life!

As I was stitching up these little hearts, I was reminded of a favorite little poem that I first spotted at my friend Sandra's house. It's by Beth Yarbrough and it's called "A Mother's Heart". Here it is:

Pieces of laughter

Patches of tears

Threaded with tenderness

Tattered with fears

Bits of forgiveness and

mounds of grace

Quilted together with

Love, Hope and Faith.

Doesn't that just sum it up? I've made lots of these, so after gifting my brother, my kids and myself...the rest will be up for sale at my shop.

Happy Valentine's Day, Friends. We're enjoying the weekend here and declaring today a "No Weight Watchers Day"! Speaking of which, Kelly has lost 25 pounds and I've lost 15 since we started in October. Wowie!

Sick Day

I suppose that if one must be home sick in bed, they could do worse than these cozy surroundings, eh? Even better than the cozy bed set up, is the view from the bed:

Yes! Tender Arts Studio is back in business! I bought this great desk at the Salvation Army last weekend. Hauled it home in a rented Home Depot truck all by myself too! I did get help with getting it in the house though- thank you, teenagers! I covered the bulletin board myself too.

I even have a doll to show for my efforts too! This is Meg March. I started her in 2008 and she languished about in her unders for over a year- poor dear! Sunday afternoon I sat at my new work station and finished her. Pure Nirvana!

On Monday, I woke up and felt like a ton of bricks had been dropped off in my head. I came home from work early and I've been in bed ever since. All in all, NOT the worst sick experience I've ever had!

Hugs to all!

2010: Year of the Tiger -- Rabbit - Astrology.com

2010: Year of the Tiger -- Rabbit - Astrology.com
I'm going to check this link again next year and see how it panned out! In the meantime:

Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone peace, joy, prosperity!

Happy Holidays!

In my little Christmas village, Santa is still handing out gifts and the Richingtons are still out visiting, but here at home we are all holiday-ed out!

It was a great Christmas for our family, I hope it was for all of you too.

That was fun!

I've had a really hard time posting photos here lately, so I've kind of given up! For now anyway! But I did just post my bedroom on HGTV's Rate My Space and that was pretty fun. The link is here if you want to check it out. It's a fun site and I love getting my "decorating fix" there because I get to interact with it and leave comments.

(oh sure...now it works! whatever!)

Orthographic Projection

We had our first presentation today in Rendering. This is my Orthographic Projection. I think I did pretty well. At least, the responses were nice from my fellow classmates. Next week I'll get my grade.

You might recognize this room from photos I've posted here on the blog- yes, it's my room! I wanted to do a space where I could refer to the measurements as much as I wanted.

Next, we're working on Axonometric Projections. To make it easy for us, the instructor has said we can use the same room, but I think I'm going to make it a little more fun by changing up the color scheme a bit!

And below is a gratuitous self-portrait. This is what I wore for my job interview last week. The good news is that we all got hired on with the new management company! I was playing around with the new features on picnik. This is supposed to be me 39% thinner! Yikes! But, it's okay.

The dress is a black and white and the skirt portion is trumpet shaped and I have the cutest wedges in black and white too. Doesn't it look 20's - 30's?

Playin' House

The boys are back in school and I've been enjoying having a home that stays picked up for more than ten minutes! Of course, I STILL haven't painted yet, but I'm sure I'm getting close! I have been stitching up some pillow covers:

And playing with sea shells and hot glue!

It really is true what they say about "back to school"- it's the most wonderful time of the year!

What is it about me and August?

It just is a super long and tiring month.
Sweet Carmen moved away to Tennessee this month with her beloved Jeremy.
Poor little Yoda had to be put down.
My new, wonderful boss found a new job and left me.
My employer is severing it's contract with the HOA I work at, so in about six weeks I may be unemployed.

*sigh*

It can only go up from here. Right?

Time for the "Way Back Machine"!

Awwww....look at those cute kids! That's me and my little brother, Jonathan at our auntie's wedding circa 1971.

Oh my, look at those handsome young people! That's my wedding in 1984.


And now...uhh...well...what good looking, portly middle aged people! This is my brother's wedding in 2003. Actually- he looked good then and he looks even better today.

That was pretty fun, eh? Thanks to Jon and Deb for emailing those top two photos to me. That made my day!

Love Letter From 1956

That is what this little ottoman is- a love letter! I bought this last fall at my favorite Goodwill. It was one of those silly moments we thrifters all have- you see an object and immediately grab for it, afraid that someone else is about to d0 the same thing! And then...your rational mind steps in and reminds you that the object is a stained and tattered ottoman! It's a real clash of the left and right sides of the brain, isn't it?

Anywhoooo.... this was covered in a beautiful old barkcloth, but it was water stained and ripped. It took many months to finally get around to re-covering it. I think it turned out pretty cute! The very enchanting part of the project came when I had the thing flipped over and was struggling to tug the cover over the foam. In very faint pencil this was written on the bottom of the ottoman: "This was made by Neil and Margaret, Sacramento, Cal., 1956". Awwwww. How sweet is that?

I did some other decorating in the living room too. Since my dining room is now my roommate (and beloved stepdaughter), Kelly's room, I've had to re-think a lot of my home's layout. I originally moved my big craft hutches into the garage, but recently realized that they would be a very welcome addition to my living room! Check it out:

Nice, huh? I think it really brings in that coastal vibe I've been wanting. See the little hope chest under the window? I'm picturing yellow and white cabana stripes painted on it! So bright and happy!

Now I am really itching to paint the walls! Except, I think I will cut the blue in half with white. I really want it to be very soft. In the photo below it looks great, but at night it's a little more colorful than I want it to be.

Just to illustrate how much my poor living room needed this change, this is how this room has looked since Earl moved out last summer:
Ugghh! No wonder I'm ready for a change. Especially since this entire color scheme was chosen to accomodate him. I didn't hate it, but it never felt like "me". Hope you all have a lovely week!

Hugs to all!

Thriftin' Adventure with Carmen

Last week Carmen and I had breakfast with Grandpa, which was very nice. He took us to his morning hangout, The Country Waffle and introduced us to all the other regulars. We were treated like celebrities!
Afterwards, the girly and I decided to hit Goodwill and check out the treasures. I don't know if it was the waffles or what, but we had such a bad case of the sillies! It seemed as if everything we saw was a visual treat. Like this lovely very vinyl purse:

Or this lovely assortment of knick knacks:

Very lovely, yes?

As far as these last two items, I don't think I can say too much here on a family blog! I'll let you use your imagination!

Oh my!

In the Good Ol' Summertime

Can you believe these pictures? The boys and I went to Lake Natomas yesterday, June 9th, and had the whole place to ourselves! What's up with that? It was a little breezy and overcast, but still nice. That's okay- we didn't mind!

Nobody but us and the geeses!

It seems like every week Eric and Max just get more and more handsome! I love this photo- it really shows how much alike they look.


Oh my yes! Very, very handsome! Buddy is handsome too, isn't he?

I hope you are all enjoying your summer too!

Hugs to all!

Janet Hill Studio

What a talented lady! She has beautiful work and her prints are so reasonable! Check out her etsy shop here and her blog here. *sigh* Seriously lovely.

One Third of Three Final Projects!

I'm so proud of this! This is for my Beginning Drawing and Composition class. This is 18"x24" and is done in black and white conte crayons on a beautiful aqua drawing paper. These are all shells that I bought when I visited Morro Bay last fall with my dear friends, Sandra and Monica. I have to do two more very different drawings of these same shells, but I just had to show you guys this one because I'm so pleased with how it came out! This one might even see the inside of a frame in my new living room!

Hugs to all!

Changes Are Coming!

Talk about eager! I just couldn't wait any longer to get a glimpse of my future living room! This is Tracey's Robin's Egg Blue. I happen to think it is exactly the same color as Bettsi's Seafoam Blue! LOL. I even started painting some of the mirror frames in white. I love it, love it, love it! There's a glimpse of the soon-to-be white chenille couch. So pretty.

Now, have I finished my kids' rooms? Of course not! Apparently I think I am Super Woman and that this summer I will get all of my projects done. Well.......I can try anyway!

Hugs to all!

Quick "Bulletin Board", Even Quicker Post!

LOL! Talk about quick and dirty! All I did was tie ribbon to the slats of my closet doors. The knots are in the back. I would have done all four, but I ran out of ribbon! I'm loving it- I finally have an inspiration board, of sorts.

In other news, the semester is almost over! I'm finishing up my final projects which I really want to share with you all when they are done. Then it's sweet, sweet summertime! So ready!

Hugs to all!

I Met Tracey and Tracey!

And it was great! Yesterday I treated myself with a drive up the block to Roseville to attend the 1st Roseville Antique Market. I knew the Tumbleweed Cotillion girls would be there and could not wait to meet them. Last year, when E and I separated, it was a post on Tracey's blog that led me to discover Getting Past Your Past and that blog has been the biggest help to me over the past nine months. It meant a lot to me to be able to tell Tracey about that.

Both of the Traceys are SO NICE! They are just so warm and kind- I wanted to sit down with them over coffee. I picked up a few little treasures from them, but they were already just about cleaned out! And it was only 10:30! Their stuff is so cute and the folks in Roseville seemed ready to buy. I picked up their adorable glitter clothespins, some sweet vintage seam binding, a tiny, glittery bouquet and a fab little photo of the Eiffel Tower that I had to add to my Paris bathroom.

The whole event was so great- I wish I had taken more pictures. I met Lisa Golightly too, who is enormously talented. In fact, she has just recently had some of her great designs licensed, so you'll be seeing more of her name, I'm sure. She was super nice too. She had the most amazing painting that she had done on canvas that combined decoupage, paint and resin that was stunning. I just found it here, but trust me when I say that it is even more cool in person.

The Tattered House is awesome! I can't believe how cool it is! They have great furniture, accessories, sea shells, crowns, soaps, etc. all housed in the sweetest little turquoise cottage. I can't believe I've never been there before. I will definitely be back- a great place for filling out my future coastal living room and a great place for gifts too.

My big find of the day was two king sized chenille bedspreads. Not fancy, just plain white. I'm going to turn them into slip covers for my couch. AFTER I get out of school for the summer, of course! I dreamt about chenille bedspreads Saturday night so I knew I would find them at the Market and sure enough, the very last vendor on the block had them. She let me have both for $35! I'm going to have custom-made chenille slipcovers for $35! (And a lot of elbow grease!)

Anyway, it was a wonderful morning. I wish I could have stayed and spent longer! I should have been at home working on my take-home math test that is due tonight and umm, yeah, still isn't done. *sigh* Maybe I can finish it on my lunch break.... Oh well, it was worth it!

Hugs to all!

Happy Easter!

I just had to show you Wendy's new Easter dress! I made this from a beautiful hankerchief given to me by Elaine Jackson in a doll swap four years ago. I hesitated over cutting into it, but it was just so perfect! I embroidered the little flowers on the front to match the original crochet edging. So pretty. She is a very happy girl now- this was her first new Easter dress in two years!

I hope you are all enjoying a blessed day. The kids and I will be taking dinner to my brother, Jonathan, tonight who is in the hospital, but coming home tomorrow. He was driving his little Honda scooter and got hit by a car! This was two weeks ago and it's been a really tough time for him. His left leg was broken in a really horrific way and they couldn't even put the plates and pins in until this past Thursday because there was so much swelling. There was so much damage due to road rash on the skin that they had to do a skin graft. Bless his heart, he has been so great through this. And, of course, we are just so thankful that it wasn't worse!

Yesterday, Kelly and I set this up for our six (!) kids so they could make these:I don't care how old these kids get, they still love to make Easter eggs! Actually, I have to qualify that last bit. Carmen was not here so it was five kids. She spent Spring Break in Colorado with her dear friend. She tried to ski and found out that she inherited the "no ski" gene! Sorry Carmen!

Well, I'm off to munch on jelly beans! Hugs out to all!