Thanks for all the well wishes. I'm all recovered and ready for the holidays. All of the packages are wrapped up under the tree and flowing out into the living room. I still need to bake those cookies, but they can wait until tomorrow.

My sister and I saw Riverdance this afternoon. It was one of the best live performances I've ever seen. The energy was palpable. At times I wanted to jump out of my seat and then there were moments that gave me the chills and brought tears to my eyes. It was everything an experience at the theater should be and more. This is the farewell tour of this show. Be sure to grab some tickets if it comes anywhere near to you. I'm still giddy.

Holiday Inspiration

If you need a little inspiration to jump start your holiday projects, stop by Scrapbook News and Review for our holiday sampler. New classes posted each hour for the next 7 hours along with lots of inspiration, games, and prizes. I'm teaching two classes today.


This is a little peek at my 2:00 class sponsored by Graphic 45 that might help you contain a popular gift.


Here's a peek at my 3:00 class sponsored by Stewart Superior Ink. It would make a wonderful hostess gift over the holidays.

I have to say that I adored working with both of these sponsor's products. I fell in love with Graphic 45 papers at CHA in January. Their double sided papers and punch outs are amazing. I love the vintage feel of these and they go so well with all my vintage embellishments that I treasure hunt for and hoard. The Stewart Superior ink is new to me, but it was love at first stamp. So much shimmery goodness in the colors I played with. These are the folks who make Palette inkpads. Good stuff. I hope you'll have time to stop by to play.

introducing big mama

My cousin, Terry, and I decided to have a crafty sleepover party this week. We had both been so inspired by the snowmen bottles in Cloth Paper Scissors that we had to try them. This is the first of 11 snow people I'm sharing with you this week. We called her Big Mama because it just sort of fit. Her base is a small glass flower vase and the head is made from air dry prang clay. The rest is a huge assortment of treasures from my stash. It took us a couple of hours just to dig out everything we wanted to use to create our snow families. She has a vintage felt bird on her hat that is fashioned out of a rusty washer and plastic plumbing piece. Her scarf is a feather boa and her wings are real feathers. Her eyes are made of brads and her nose is a game piece. She has a rub-on sentiment down at the bottom and some beaded trim and millinery flowers finish off her ensemble. Of course she is covered in vintage chunky glitter to add the touch of snow everywhere.

What a wonderful time we had getting glitter, glue, and feathers all over everything. We decided that we now see why people make dolls. These little snow people took on such personalities as we created them. I have pictures of Terry's snow people to share also, since she doesn't have a blog yet. She needs one, though. It was so much fun to create together, it's been too many years since we did that. We learned to sew together when we were in Kindergarten with our first sewing machines. Terry is a much more accomplished seamstress than I am, but working with these little people was a great equalizer. We live about a day's drive away from each other, but something tells me that we'll be making that drive more often now that our kids are teens and young adults.

It's been an amazing week for me. My hubby swept me away to San Diego this weekend for our 18th anniversary. We spent an entire day in the art museums at Balboa Park. We ate every single yummy thing our hearts desired and filled up our wells with beautiful inspiration. The weather was picture perfect and it is such a vibrant city. I think my muse really loved the museums. She has lots of ideas now.