Avalanche of Activities

You ever have weeks where life is routine and uneventful ..well, ok, lets's say boring.....and you find yourself wondering if grocery shopping is a suitable topic for your weekly blog post? Well, this is NOT one of those weeks. Grab a pumpkin latte, indulge in one of those yummy Starbucks pumpkin muffins and hang in there! (and I'm not even going to count getting caught up from "the week of the flu", or the two major household appliances that needed repair, including one that flooded my upper landing)

First, I participated in the Sweet & Sinister Swap over at Artsy Mama. My swap partner was the talented Jeanetta at Splendid Things. She handcrafted everything you see here and even included some little trimmings in that box for the paper dresses I was making. My favorite of course is that Sweet & Sinister commemorative pincushion. Thank you Jeanetta!
And what did I send to her? Well..... if I have a failing in life it is that I can never remember to photograph my swap goodies before I wrap them. Never, ever. I suddenly remembered when I was wrapping the very last package, so here are pics of the sinister bat cookie plate and her dress for the Halloween ball (paper of course). I also sent a cute kit for making homemade ghost candies and a black cat candle holder. Making Jeanetta's dress was very inspirational and inspired a whole line of spiderweb couture dresses so it might look very familiar to some of you :)


This was also the final week of the 2007 Sherwood Saturday market. It's been getting quite chilly and damp in the mornings, so I was ready for it to come to a close. Until next year, market goers! Thank you for another great season!! Here are some farewell booth shots:


Also two fabulous blog events: Karla's Romantic Home Party and the Bloglandia Ball. I made it to everyone's beautiful sharing of their romantic homes. Still dancing to see everyone's beautiful ball gowns. My mouse-clicking finger is getting quite a workout this week! :)

And to conclude the week, I'm very happy to announce the winners of the earring giveaway! Thank you everyone for entering my contest! You are all such fantastic women, I wish I could give each and every one of you a prize! This was my first giveaway and it was such fantastic fun, I will be doing another one soon. The winners for each letter category, as chosen by a random number generator, are .....drumroll............


A. Tiny Keys: She'sSewPretty
B. Vintage Style: Old Agate & Turquoise: Sweet Cottage Dreams
C. Classic Everyday Pearl Drops: Lori
D. Peacock Feathers: Natalea
E. Magical Fairy Tale Stars: Reflections from the Stone Nest
F. Happy Ladybugs: Rosie

Winners, please send me your mailing addresses, so I can get your pretty lovelies sent out to you asap!

The Bloglandia Ball !!

It's time for the Bloglandia Ball! Let's put on our sparkly ball gowns and dance together under the stars and moon! Here's the lacy confection I'm wearing! Embellished with a rare blue rose and black velvet corset laces, and embroidered with sparkly blue diamonds, I feel like a fairy tale princess!

The Bloglandia ball is hosted by Be..Dream..Play and you can find links to all the fabulous dresses of the ball attendees there. Every one is a stunning beautiful work of art and fit for a queen! Come join us for the Bloglandia Ball! Friends celebrating and having a good time together - can't get any better!

And there's still time to enter the GIVEAWAY !

Romantic Country Party & A Giveaway!!

Karla's Cottage is having a Romantic Country Party! She's asking party goers to post photos of what they love and find most romantic about their homes. Well, those of you who follow my blog know there is really only one good answer to that question this fall. It's my new patio of course!! It's finally done and I LOVE it!!! It is so blissful to sit out there sipping hot cocoa, listening to the crickets and watching the sun set. Let's go on a patio tour!
This is right outside the backdoor. We started with a traditional French gravel border but switched to Japanese style rocks. They look marvelous when wet and glistening with rain. And there is a lot of rain here :)
The main seating area. It has a canopy over it right now so it can stay cool and damp for moss growing. And look closely ... it's working! We built it right up to the lemon thyme and English lavender and oh, how divine it smells when the wind blows through!

And this is looking up the shallow tiered risers to what will be the potted herb and vegetable area. The "culinary patio". It was the last bit to be finished and you can still see paving sand that needs to be swept away and surplus bags of rock. But we already have two potted peppermint plants there growing tall! Eep! Don't look at the grass! It was hard to mow around 50 lb. pavers and rock, so we just let it go.

It has been a long journey getting this patio done, but sitting out there in the autumn evenings ... well worth it!! It's a wonderful place to retreat to and the most romantic spot in my house to me :) In my imagination, it's five years down the road....all the pavers are mossy, white climbing roses blanket the fence, a small fountain is babbling and I'm plucking fresh berries from a potted blueberry bush for the breakfast laid out on the table. I can even smell the fresh squeezed orange juice and chocolate croissants. Ahh! Blissful!!

And now....as promised....in celebration of finally getting the patio finished ... A GIVEAWAY!!!!!

A. Tiny Keys
B. Vintage Style: Old Agate & Turquoise (reworked into my signature hoops)
C. Classic Everyday Pearl Drops
D. Peacock Feathers
E. Magical Fairy Tale Stars
F. Happy Ladybugs (a brighter, cheerier yellow in person than in the photo)

I'm giving the giveaway a bit of a twist because I'm a modern girl who believes in having choices :) I also really want you to love what you win! Take a look at the photo montage above and choose your favorite earrings. Then comment on this post making sure to mention which pair (A,B,C,D,E or F) you want to win. Blogger doesn't always automatically capture your email/blog link, so please put a way to contact you if needed. I'm giving away all six earrings, so we'll have 6 winners!! (Oh! I almost forgot. These all have surgical steel earwires so most metal sensitives can wear them.)

Good luck to everyone entering the giveaway! And if you'd like to see more romantic homes celebrating, you'll find a list of participants at Karla's Cottage!

Marie Antoinette: Pretty, Pretty Shoes

This was going to be a fabulous post about exotic adventures, priceless shopping treasures and amazing creative goodies. But ..... the flu moved into our house this week so those things didn't quite happen :) I DID make a closet full of lovely paper dresses, but can't share those quite yet :) I'm still brainstorming on what, if anything, to do to the backs before sending them off to their new homes. Pretty dresses were making me think of pretty shoes to go with them. So... how about a dose of pretty Marie Antoinette shoe eye candy?This stunning collection of artfully piled Versailles shoes is from Moda Pra Ler. Why don't my shoes look that cute when I let them pile up?

These next two shoes shots are from the movie Marie Antoinette starring Kirsten Dunst. Aren't these yummy! Love those pastel candy colors! Reminds me of frosted petite four candies. Who else but Manolo Blahnik could have designed these beauties? Personally, I thought the movie was a bit vapid, but really enjoyed it as cinematic eye candy.

And this last one is from Shoe IQ. Looking at the white pair, you can really see the unique shape of shoes of that era. High heels were a must along with embroidered silks, rich brocades, painted leather, and large showy buckles. They don't look terrible comfortable, but who knows? Maybe they were. Did you know that very little remains of the actual wardrobe of this notorious French queen? I've heard there is only one actual shoe, not a pair, but a single shoe still existing that is attributed to her.
In other news ..... I finally finished my patio!!! Yeah!!! I'm now trying to encourage moss to grow between the pavers. Really hoping for that old English look. How do you grow moss? Use this handy recipe: Take some existing moss and puree in a blender with yogurt and cheap beer (You're whipping up a moss spore and moss food combo). Paint mixture on patio pavers. Keep moist. Watch moss grow. Moss grows slowly, so it might take a while :)

Next post .... a "Patio Finished Party"! And maybe my first giveaway too :) Have to get rid of this pesky flu first :)

It's Pumpkin Latte Time

The air here is starting to have that morning chill and Starbucks has pumpkin coffee lattes back on the menu -- fall is coming! This almost-fall week I went shopping for goodies. Look at these gorgeous lacy trims I found this weekend! Some pretty mini-flowers and a great strand of miniature faux pearls too (love this). I also bought some really cool victorianesque blacked silver & "diamond" buttons. Yum! I can't wait to try these out on the paper dresses I'm designing!

In addition to happily crafting paper dresses, I'm starting to amass stock for the Art & Antiques fair I'll be vending at in two weeks. And getting a bit stressed at all the preparations I need to make. Making LOTS of nests and bird tiles of course. Those new little painted bird earrings will be there. Also, these new little felt earrings I'm experimenting with. I'm calling them "flirty felts" and I think I will put them in the web boutique too.


Also, I have recently become aware of a fantastic resource for swaps. If you have ever just missed a swap sign-up, had trouble finding a swap to join, or hosted a swap and wanted to advertise it, this is a blog you will want to check out! I'm just in love with the idea of having a central location to check for cool swaps. Maybe I'm the last one in blogland to discover SwapDex, but if not, I wanted to share this awesome resource with you. Speaking of swaps, everyone who signed up for the paper dress swap should have received an Official Paper Dress Swap letter by now and know who your partner is. If not, please e-mail me ASAP. Thanks!

This last item may seem like it's coming out of left field in an arts/crafts blog, but it's not really given that my degree is partially in Japanese Art. I found this hilariously funny satirical commentary on learning the Japanese language. If you don't study Japanese, it probably won't mean much to you, but if you do or ever have, I thought it was funny and you might too :)
(A scene from "The Tale of Genji" courtesy of Wikipedia)

Thank You & Little Birds

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who stopped by to comment on my little paper dresses and the swap! You are all so fabulously sweet and such wonderful souls!! This is what I love so much about blogland - all the giving and sharing and warmth of this fabulous creative community. Thanks so much everyone! It will take me a few days to catch up on all the e-mails and comments. My two little kids started school today (pre-K and 1st grade) so its an eventful day here for the family.
For those who joined the swap, I've been thinking of how to display our fabulous swapped dresses! I've seen them strung on ribbon like a garland and on doll hangers, but I was playing around and came up with the graceful hanger above. It's a simple piece of 20 gauge craft wire where the ends are curled up into loose spirals. A length of ribbon is tied into a circle with a bow and then slipped under the spirals. The dress is attached with small clothes pins. Too cute!

I will be sending out e-mails with swap partners on Thursday, Sept. 6th . If you do NOT receive an e-mail from me by Friday morning, Sept. 7th, please e-mail me right away at the address in the sidebar. If you haven't joined the swap yet and would like to, there's still time! Just leave a comment on the prior post. We have quite a few international participants and while the dresses will be small enough to fit in a large envelope, if you are uncomfortable shipping internationally for any reason, please e-mail me privately.

And look what's been cooking in the studio! Where do you dry birds-on-a-stick? Why in the pages of one's unabridged dictionary, of course! I had a hand full of toothpicks with wet paint birds and realized I didn't have a block of styrofoam to set them in. Looked around desperately for a few moments, then happened to look down and see the dictionary ... perfect! My two boys and I have been diligently watching some sky blue eggs in a robin's nest hatch into cute little fledglings, so I have baby birds on the brain :)
And here my little painted baby birds are all grown up as earrings and ready to fly away :)