My gramma

So yesterday my gramma died, or I should say went to be with my grampa in heaven. She also has a son there and all her family. I am going to miss her so much, she was a huge part of my growing up. They only loved 2 blocks from us, so we were at their house almost as much as ours. She taught me to cook and clean in 4-H, let us iron hankies and pillowcases for a nickel ( which we promptly afterward marched straight to the local little grocery store and bought jolly rancher sticks or chic-o-sticks!!). She would be 88 yrs old this coming up march, so she lived a long happy life. Gram was 16 when she got married! It's amazing how times have changed, she had 4 successful pregnancies and 1 miscarriage, my mom was the only girl, third in line. My mom and the youngest uncle mike were extremely close growing up, he sadly passed from cancer about 20 yrs ago. My mom is having a hard time, her and my gram talked daily and were extremely close, specially being the only girl, she was able to spend these last 2 weeks at her bedside and was there when she took her last breath. I am glad my gramma is not in pain anymore but still so sad to not have her around. May she rest in peace and be an angel on earth

wow what a giveaway

hope i did this right!! hopefully you can click on the link to see this incredible giveawy!! bloggers are some of the most amazing generous people around!! if not check out scrapwithstacy.blogspot.com

check out the hive

check out the hive, so many of my blog friends have signed up. of course it's another timesucker lol but basically a art friendly community for everyone, artists, buyers, crafters, woodworkers, etc.

so cute littlemouse giveaway

wow what a sweet little mouse, though i hope to win hee hee! I need to share:) truly a very talented artist being generous with their art!

click on the title to go to her blog!

from one vacation to another

Just got back from Seattle, lots of fun, cousins had so much fun together. Able to get to IKEA!!!! wish I had more money to spend there! So now i need to finish my witch for a doll swap, finish some halloween wips for the Halloween Artists blog that I am going to be on, get my etsy shop up and running with some goodies. AND we are heading to walla walla again this week for the rest of johnnys vacation. I need a vacation from the vacation!

some new ado alice pics

Just wanted to add some better pics for the ADO Alice in Wonderland challenge. What a honor to be able to share with some truly amazing doll artists. Thanks all for looking and the comments.

Alice came home!

Well little Alice has decided to finally make a appearance on my blog. She has been a stubborn girl not quite good at making decisions on what to wear to the tea parties. But somewhere along the way she came home with someones tophat and a funky teapot the same color as her socks!

Thanks everyone for stopping by and all the sweet comments! I made Alice from paperclay and her skirt is vintage crepe paper. I had so much fun making her, thinking little red riding hood might be next! Or maybe I should make Alice some of her friends......hmmm suggestions?

Alice is being ornery

Well she came home from her blog hopping and she must have been playing in the mud for her dress was all dirty! So now she is refusing to get dressed! Has anyone else had trouble with Alice? Quite the stubborn girl I must say, nothing at all like me!! So she let me take a quick picture after she washed her face, she washed off all her eyelashes so now we must paint some more on.

I hope you can come back when she is all prim and proper!

http://artdollsonly.blogspot.com/ i hope you can click on the link to see all the participants in the alice challenge.

My Alice has promisted she will climb out of the rabbit hole on friday!! I think she is stuck at the Halloween Fanatics Mad Hatter tea party! Probably trying to push his Alice out of the picture, she has been a little bossy to me! We shall soon see!

http://artdollsonly.blogspot.com/2010/05/second-annual-ado-blog-event.html

this is a great event i am going to participate in, still trying to figure out how to get the pic and all that stuff on here!!

great blog with awesome pattersn

and she is giving away 1 free pattern, so generous! i love her annies, and her witch, and her well you'll just have to go check them out!! i love blogland so many talented, awesome, friendly, creative, caring people out there. her name is michelle and her blog is raggedypants.blogspot.com! happy day everyone!

alice in wonderland swap

just wanted to post a pic from the fantastic rabbit i got!! i was in the alice in wonderland swap hosted by susan o'connor of rabbit hollow prims, one of the nicest peeps ever and super talented to boot!!

my swap partner was angie heldenbrand and she made me this great rabbit along with some vintage buttons(love) and some other crafty treasures. i love swaps you get to meet some great people who enjoy the same things and in the process make some great new friends!!

doll swap dolls

these are the dolls i made for the swap hosted by sue at rabbit hollow primitives. so fun, i really love my alice! had a hard time deciding what to make for the alice in wonderland but finally decided to be true to who the movie is all about! also did the cat swap and the americana swap. fun and so many wonderful people to meet from everywhere around the world.

long time no post

so i check blogs everyday, but don't ever take time to post myself! should work on that a little bit. but so many great blogs out there and from one i like i can see where they go and usually find some more great ones!! my list that i follow is getting long but so much fun!

boys almost out of school for the year, wow the year has gone fast. ryan onto high school next year, how did he grow up so fast! ayden in the iep preschool again, his speech is good but still need to work on some cognitive skills. hopefully by the time he starts kindergarten he will be more consistent. the kid has a imagination though, can play for hours creating and acting it out. i secretly hide and listen because i love listening to him tell his imaginary play person what is happening. yesterday he was asking him if he was going hunting because ayden was going hunting and he needed to know. so funny.

where does the time go??

spring already, even though we hardly had a winter!! record snowfall last year, over 5 ft in 3 days and this year record snowfall under 2" for the entire winter!! is this what they call global warming at it's finest! so now the birds have been busy in the yard building nests, the sparrows chatting up a storm in the lilac-which drives the dogs crazy!! i think the birds do it on purpose, they seem to get louder and more of them when they fly to the other side of the bush, almost taunting them!!

been in process of cleaning, organizing, getting rid of stuff in the craft room, which i have been calling the craft hole! it's the room everything gets dumped in after the fall when shows over and this year seemed worse then most. i will post pics when the done is done, true before and after. you see these gorgeous, organized craft spaces and is it truly possible? for me probably long enough to get a picture before i get busy. because it does make me want to go make something but i don't want to mess anything up yet!!lol thank god for mothers she has been helping me, she is the more organized one of us but it is pretty comical when neither of us can find the box for something even though we just had it. we were looking for a box of purses and bags i have to paint on and we knew we just had it, so we looked in the cabinets, on the tables and we were like "what, where could it have gone?" i looked down and it was right next to my foot!! oh it's been work but also some great time!!

thrift store fun!

went to some thrift stores this morning! always fun, i'll try to get some pics posted tue of my goodies. went to the goodwill downtown-always so busy, salvation army, northwest christian, and teen thrift. got some great wood peices to paint on at the goodwill and the cutest salt shaker that just sreamed at me to be turned into a mushroom! so then i was on the lookout for more and found a few more small ones at teen challenge along with some great vintage aluminum cups-just like my gramma used to have!! they were 79cents apeice and he rang me up all four for 1.49!! plus they always let the kids pick out one toy so ayden got this great big tiger that he has been wanting from walgreens, regular price 29.99!! and we got him free! they are a great store, christian based and helping out local teens stay out of trouble by working. missed out on a great loveseat there too and a lady got a gorgeous table, the top was horrible but i know she is going to shabby it up and it would look gorgeous painted black. it had these amazing legs just perfect for some sanding and primming! got a great old cheese holder made from wood, reminded me again of gramma and the old government cheese she used to get. fun day now onto some work around the house so tomorrow i can play!!!

valentine swap

some pics of the items i made for the valentine swap. i hope they like them! the doll is for rabbithollow prims, i hope she loves annies as much as i do! also sent some treats for her boys and some other goodies.

for the other valentine swap amelia is a huge halloween fan so i HAD to incorporate some spookiness in! i made some cute chocolates out of paperclay but when you turn them over their true insides show!! i hope she likes it, i also sent her some extra goodies like candy shaped lipgloss, candy notepad, did i mention she LOVES candy also!! so much fun to do but i was late getting mine out! next time i'll be more organized and hopefully not have a million things get in the way.

monday monday

oh i need to finish my swap valentine! the clay is not drying so i can paint them. hoping to just make one trip to the post office, maybe i will just wait till tomorrow then i can go to our local chocolate shop and get some of their yummy mints to send with.

i went antiquing on saturday!! so fun, i haven't gone in such a long time, too hard with the under 4 generation! i can take him to thrift stores but antique-don't think so!!!lol i spent hours looking, and found a few things i want;excuse to go back!!:) i got some cute vintage valentines to send to my swap partners and found the cutest one for my hunter husband. i'll get pics up as soon as i can. better go check on my clay, they are really cute little chocolates but when you turn them over they are halloween faces-she loves halloween so thought cute idea.

one heart one mind

just been checking out blogs for the one heart one mind blog giveaway. amazingly over 900 bloggers have signed up, i don't know if i will even get to all of them. i've already seen so many great people from all over the world! next year i want to sign up so i can have a giveaway, just too new on this and still trying to figure out how to do stuff. went to joann fabrics today, teenage ds babysat the 4yo other ds while dh went fishing. fun to just look at everything, had a nice visit with a gal while looking at pattern books, checked out all the other great books, scrapbook paper, and ohh the fabric-how i love fabric!!! i have so much though i have vowed to not buy anymore until i reduce my stash, unless it's for a specific purpose and i don't have anything that will work. how's that for a good excuse-lol!

blog blogs blogs so many blogs

oh my i have spent hours lately checking and signing up for some amazing giveaways the last few days. one heart one world organized this great blog sharing giveaways with over 900 participants. i have found some great new blogs and i have only checked out about 100 so far. i have a list written down to go and check back, some i just had to follow right away because they are things i love. now hopefully i will win one of these amazing works of art. more boring things now onto clean up the 4yo room! why does the toy they need at the very bottom and every other toy has to come out before? then it's a fight to get them to put them back in!! that's why moms clean so we can toss, donate, hide until they learn if they want it they keep it at least off the floor!

sinus infections suck!

so my husband had a cold 2 weekends ago, and you know when men get sick ya know the whole world is crashing down! so me who usually has a great immune wakes up thursday morn feeling a little under the weather, and by friday i knew i had the same thing! his lasted only a few days, me-on day 5!!! what the heck! i can only hear out of one ear and sometimes one nostril will let the air flow. i had big plans for this week too!! i have all the christmas stuff in my salon to put in their totes, luckily the couple clients i had i was able to reschedule. but now i have to rush and do it all tomorrow so i can work on thur. i have my 2 swaps i have to finish up to get in the mail. i was hoping to get them both mailed on sat. but thinking it will be more like monday. these are my first swaps and am so excited to be participating. such a amazing group of people out in the big world. so going to put the little one to bed so we can watch a movie, jodie foster kicking some serious bootie! the brave one i think it is called, gotta love netflix!!

great giveaway

check out sweet meadows farm for a chance to win one her exceptional dolls!! talented artist and designer. of course i want to win but i'll share the chance lol

cloth paper scissors oh my

just picked up the new issue and it is delicious!! i really need to subscribe to this magazine, it always inspires and gets ideas going, tricks to try, and plenty of eye candy. sometimes just what you need to read at the moment! one of my goals this year is to get more serious with my art, i have the talent i just need to complete the process and build the inventory. so that is one of my goals this year to get etsy up and going and keep it up, market myself positively and professionaly. well they have a great article about just that making your resolutions stick and gives some great ideas and advice on how to reach your goals once they are set. so this weekend my journal-the real paper kind not computer kind:) is going to get started. im thinking along the lines of vision board/journal, something that has my goals, ideas, inspirations all in one place that i will see everyday. one big thing that made me think is to set up time to create, we get so busy and try to fit it in but to actually alott time in the day just for that. for me my 4yo is in preschool in the morning for 2 1/2 hours plenty of time to get some housework done and some play/create time but i get distracted by all the great blogs, facebook, etsy, ebay, etc. and before i know it time to go pick him up! i really need to use that time better, i know it but i need to do it, only i can make the change and do what i need to do. so i am heading to bed with my new magazine to see what else i can carry into my dreams!! speaking of dreams, mine have been crazy lately. with parts of dreams a few days ago intertwining with the current night, like it's all a book intertwined. don't ever recall so much going on between dreams like this, and how many people and personal things are reacting to each other. wonder what tonight will bring. good night

just a few pictures from one of our fall craft shows.

we forgot to get pictures before so it's a little emptier by the time we remembered!!