Cheerful Grocery List Tablet...

I am posting this now because I had mailed it to England and Sherry has received it and it is on her blog today. Please visit Sherry to see all the wonderful things she creates and shares with us. This strip of fabric was wrapped around a wonderful gift of Greek Olive Oil soap and a magnet from Greece she sent me a while back. I knew I wanted to create something with this narrow strip of fabric but what would it be? The fabric is so soft and bright and cheery I kept thinking of grocery shopping. So this is what I made and sent to Sherry...

I cut the fabric in a long strip and folded it in the center. Then I cut two pieces of thin cardboard to make a front and back cover. Next was some black paper to cover the cardboard and then I stitched it all around. Inside I put text weight paper in the colors of white, yellow and green that can be written on. A piece of grosgrain ribbon along the top fold makes it sturdy. For a touch of decoration I added a cute orange flower button and a green suede leaf.

Now this is a cheery tablet for keeping a grocery list or whatever else needs jotting down.

Thank you Sherry for sending me this super fun fabric. It was inspirational.

Think of using some holiday fabric to make some note pads for quick gifts.

How would you use a narrow strip of fun fabric?

Happy creating...

Fun Fall Flowers...

I love making these fun flowers. This time I have used wool felt, lace and ribbons. Usually I stack the three different sizes for one flower. This time I stacked each of three layers in only one size. This is the small size and I added a button to the center of this one. With a pin back I am able to wear it on a lapel.

Same materials in the middle size and this time I used a "wad" of threads gathered from some torn muslin. I stacked three coordinating buttons for the center. This flower is pinned to the center of my Halloween witch hat that I shall be wearing this weekend.

This is the large sized petals and I used ribbons for the center. This fall flower took a ride through the mail service and surprised a blog pal of mine.

Here is the trio of Fall Flowers. I never get tired of making these fun floral pins.

Ideas are in the works for the next generation of my favorite flowers. Stay tuned...

Happy Halloweekend to each of you. May you have lots of treats and no tricks.

Hello October...

Hello October and welcome Fall. This is a time to breathe and re-group so we can get ready for the rush of holidays...Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Our days and nights will be very busy and we will try to do too many things for too many people and not enough for ourselves.
So...sit back and put your feet up for a few minutes and think of all the things we have to be grateful for that do not make us feel rushed or crazy.

Then have some fun with whimsy this month. Like wearing fun socks on those cool days of Fall. Here I am wearing my brand new ghosts socks. Their happy little faces with the big smiles just make me smile. Yes these are my newest black shoes which I love. I admit to having a weakness for shoes and it actually offsets my weakness for all the other things I love like fabrics, beads, laces, ribbons and so many other crafting supplies.

Hello October and let's all enjoy this month of Fall and fun and family and friends.

Happy Haunting...

August Birthdays...

August is a very busy month around here. We have 10 birthdays to celebrate. Not everyone lives so close however we still celebrate all that we can. My daughter's birthday was on the 7th and because she lives in Southern California she got a phone call and a mailed birthday gift. Then we have my friend and creative coach Margaret on the 8th. Now Margaret lives very close and we can truly celebrate with a party. I made her a card with fabric and paper and chipboard letters.

I used the same fabrics to make yo-yo's for decorating this framed bulletin board as her gift. Once again with the chipboard letters to spell out abundance as that is Margaret's inspiration word. Since Margaret is a wordsmith (http://www.goldrushwordsmith.com/) this might come in handy for slipping notes into.

Of course we played games. A very silly game involving plungers and toilet paper rolls. We all laughed so hard I think we gained years instead of aging. You really should try this as it is much more difficult than it seems. We considered it exercise and therefore got to eat a lot more yummy birthday food.

I didn't get a photo of the tables but we had a wonderful indoor picnic with lots of great food. Cold cuts, cheeses, assorted sandwich makings, chips, cole slaw, green bean potato salad and lots of beverages. We even had super fun ants on the table. For the birthday dessert we had home made lemon meringue pies and yum yum!

Birthdays are so much fun when you just let them be such.

Happy Birthday Margaret and all my August family and friends!!!

Now I think you secretly want to try this plunger game. Do you? Have you?

Happy creating...

August-My Favorite Month...

August is my very favorite month of the year. I think it is for several reasons:

I was born in August
My beautiful daughter was born in August
The sun shines in August and keeps us warm and happy
Life is both relaxed and very busy with fun activities

This photo is overlooking the valley below Cortona Italy. Last year when Mr. C and I drove through Tuscany on our trip we stopped here. Yes, this is where the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" was filmed and we thought it might be too touristy. Not at all. It was charming and beautiful and magical all at once. We only spent the day but wished we had more time to explore and enjoy Cortona.

May you have the best August you have ever experienced. That is what I am planning.
What are you hoping to do this month of August?

Clara's Big Day Out...

Let me introduce you to Clara. She is a 1969 Rambler American and that is the last year built. Isn't she beautiful? Well to me she certainly is! Clara is a true survivor. You are viewing a complete original vehicle. She only now has almost 38,000 miles on her. We purchased her with only 27,000 original miles. Mr. C drives her all over the place. Yesterday Clara had her big day out as she took us to the National Rambler Meet in Sacramento, California.

We arrived early and Barcelona Rose is the first Rambler Clara met. 1965 Rambler 990 and her owner Tracey was very sweet and friendly (and young).

This is the row that Clara was part of as it was mostly Americans of similar vintage. Being in the shade was very nice as it was an extremely warm day.

Oh this row...the testerone row as it was full of fabulous Javelin and AMX Ramblers. Now these owners are serious car club show people. I also got the feeling that they are serious road racers too but shhh we won't tell that.

This is a very cute Nash that a young family owns and enjoys. That was an interesting part of Clara's big day out meeting the variety of people and cars that enjoy Ramblers.

And this has to be the cutest and nicest Metropolitan I have ever seen. It was flawless in every way.

Clara had a good day and enjoyed the meet. When we left Sacramento Clara took us to Costco for a few items I had to pick up. You know her trunk can hold a lot of volume so I bought some large boxed items I needed.

Then on our way home Clara stopped for us to enjoy a nice late lunch/early dinner at one of our favorite spots. We filled our tummies and then onward Clara delivered us home safe and sound. I must thank Mr. C for driving as Clara can be a handful with no power steering, no power brakes and "three on the tree" with no syncro gears first or reverse. I forgot to remember I wanted an automatic when I was searching for a Rambler. However I wouldn't trade Clara as she is the most reliable and wonderful and affordable car we own.

Thank you Clara and what a fun day we had.

Happy traveling...

Thank you Millie...

Thank you Millie for being so supportive and encouraging of my blog and endeavors. We share a love of creating jewelry and blogging and our tag line of "happy creating". Please check out http://ammjewelry.blogspot.com and see what Millie is up to. Millie has given me my first award and now I am sharing it with others.

Here are the rules for this award: (I think it is to merely have fun and get to know others)
1. Post the award on my blog
2. Thank the person who gave me this award
3. Link the person who gave me this award (I did in the title I hope)
4. Share 7 things that you might not know about me
5. Choose 7 great bloggers to share this award with
6. Share a link to their blogs ( I am not good with links but I shall try)
7. Leave a comment on their blog (and hope they don't hate you :o) for doing this)

So now I continue...

Seven things you might not know about me:
1. I am so fortunate that I have the love of creating handmade items and the teachings of my grandmother and mother who were super creative.
2. I am a little girl at heart and I love to pretend I am still the princess.
3. I am always volunteering to help others and share my knowledge and skills with them. Mr. C says I am generous to a fault and I find that to be a compliment. :o)
4. I adore colors of the rainbow and more, however, blues are my hearthrob.
5. I believe our health is more important with every year that we are living. I am trying to eat better and be more physically active even though I really despise outdoor adventure and bugs.
6. My favorite saying is, "That is my favorite!"
7. I am truly blessed with a wonderful husband (we are do-overs), daughter, two granddaughters, one fur-child kitty, numerous friends and family members whom I love and cherish.

Okay here are the seven (7) bloggers I wish to share this award with: (in alphabetical order)
1. Carmelina @ http://creativecarmelina.blogspot.com
2. Darlene @ http://darlenepringle.blogspot.com
3. Dogwood @ http://pinkdogwoodblossom.blogspot.com
4. elle @ http://ellendacoop.blogspot.com
5. Jan @ http://papercraftpleasures.blogspot.com
6. Kat&Suz @ http://katsuijewelry.blogspot.com
7. Lori @ http://elviestudio.blogspot.com
Once you visit each of these blogs you will see that I have selected quite an eclectic array as that is how I like things...eclectic and interesting.

Please understand I know this takes time and I truly appreciate each of you and your creativity. My sincere gratitude for this wonderful world of friends and wealth of creative ideas I have found here in blogland.

I look forward to reading each of your little known 7 things.
Thank you thank you.

Creative Cue #5 - ODD

Here is my Creative Cue #5 from last Sunday. The word...ODD

If you are not familiar with this challenge please go to www.threecreativestudios.com to read about how easy this is. And it is totally selective as you wish to participate or not.

When I first saw the word ODD I came up with several ideas. However the one that stuck with me was this one. The "odd" sock that is always left over in the washer or dryer when you know for certain that you did put in the pair of two socks but only one "odd" sock remains at the end of the washing or drying cycle. Someplace somewhere there is a world of "odd" socks happily existing and knowing they perplexed us so many times.

You know there are lots of ideas and crafts based on using just the one "odd" sock that you have after doing the laundry. Lots of childrens games are a result of this phenomenon. Just think of bean bags for tossing. Pouches for collecting and carrying rocks and marbles are made from "odd" singular socks found in the laundry.

How fun to be challenged to think of something we are not usually being creative with.

Hmmm...now on to this week. Yes I already have some ideas. LOL :o)

Curiouser and curiouser...

"Curiouser and Curiouser" is a quote from Alice in Wonderland. This photo is a sneak peak of a necklace I made in the spirit of the tale of Alice in Wonderland. It is fun, funky and very quirky which I do believe describes Alice and the characters surrounding her.

Today I just needed the bright spring colors of pink and green. We have sunshine for the moment however I understand a very big and wet storm is coming our way and should last several days.

So in the cheeriness of spring here is a glimpse of what I love to make. Very unique and individual pieces of jewelry that you won't see on anyone else but you. My creative muse is in high gear this season of after the holidays. I have so many ideas and want to create so many things.

I am reminding myself to focus and therefore I am getting a lot of things accomplished. And that feels super good. I am smiling and enjoying each day.