Kat's Tinkerings...

Julie Nutting's Class

2012-01-27T21:52:00.000-08:00

I recently took a class with Julie Nutting, artist and author of Collage Couture. She taught us how to make these wonderful Valentine paper dolls. Three different dolls all with the same body. I love them. Pick up her book. This is something I could make daily and feel like I really created something cute.

The other day my friend Cynthia came over and we created canvases together. These are unusual colors for me to use. I usually love the cool tones…purples, pinks, blues, and teals. The texture on this canvas was created with encaustic wax, which was fun to play with.

Here is Cynthia’s beautiful encaustic piece. It has a lovely old world look to it.

It was a fun day and I hope we do it again soon.

My next paper doll is going to be a larger canvas. I think I want to go big on the dress, with vibrant colors. Stay tuned!

Technorati Tags: Julie Nutting,Collage Couture

Fun For Me

2012-01-16T22:51:00.000-08:00

Prior to Christmas, I made two paintings that I liked quite a bit. They were both created as white elephant gifts for the two creative book clubs I participate in. The parameters of the white elephant swap was that the gifts had to be handmade and they had to be something I would want to keep. I think I accomplished that. I had a lot of fun painting them and I really wanted to keep both of these paintings.

I was so excited that at both clubs the paintings were very well received. My girlfriend affectionately calls them my "big head girls."

By the end of the swaps, the paintings went to two lovely ladies that I feel confident are happy with them. If I couldn't keep them, I am happy that they went to good homes and will be well loved.

Utter Rambling

2012-01-13T15:03:00.000-08:00

I pretty much spent December in bed. I have a herniated disk and there's an excruted fragment lodged against the nerve, which is causing serious (I mean sometimes a 10) pain. Taylor graciously put up some christmas decorations for us. We had a lovely low-key christmas. Some of my kids and inlaws came over. We had to cater it because I couldn't cook. One of my grand babies was here and he was a total joy. He's too young to understand anything about Christmas. Still, he was so fun.

I saw my doctor on December 5 and didn't get the MRI until the 31st. Finally got the results and my options on January 10th. That's more than a month of taking meds to get through it. I have pain killers but I hate them almost as much as the pain. I have a nerve med that finally seems to be helping, but it makes my brain crazier than it already is. My memory is completely shot. I don't know how it can get worse, but it is!

I was just telling a couple of friends that the worse part about these types of illnesses is that they are invisible. No one can see them. My insecurities come out and I wonder if people think it's not real, or maybe I'm a hypochondriac, or worse, just a complainer. Truth is, sometimes I am a complainer, but that's because I get sick of the pain and I get sick of waiting.

When I got the results of my most recent MRI, at first I was elated because I felt sort of validated that, YES, there is something wrong with me. I'm not crazy! Course, then the realization that there's something wrong with me sunk in.

The good news is that I am not alone. I have a wonderful husband who always takes care of me. I have a fabulous daughter who helps me more than she'll ever know. My very loving sister and my best friend both check in on me even if only for some phone company.

I have a home and food and two cars. I have a room full of art supplies. I can walk and I can think. These two things are difficult for me, but I can do them.

I'm taking an online class right now with some girlfriends because that's what I can do. I'm playing Words with Friends with my son-in-law because that's another thing I can do. I spend time with friends as much as possible because it makes me happy and that's what I can do.

It's amazing the things you think about when you're incapacitated. I've been making lots of lists. Lists of goals for 2012, art supplies that I need, that I don't need, bills, things to do, prayers, gratitude lists, lists of things I want to learn. Then there's the lists of things I need to do to the house, the yard, buy for the house...bla bla bla!

I saw the Ali Edwards challenge and decided I needed a WORD. I had to make a list about that.

2012 Word: HEALTH

What does it mean to me?
Getting my back as strong as possible
Lose weight: be aware of everything that goes in my mouth
Exercise: physical therapy, walking,
Drink water
Acupuncture
Massage
Feeling good about myself: hair, skin, nails
Keeping my brain active: games, reading, art,
Clearing the clutter from my home and my life

Dr. oz says:
Eat mindfully with full concentration to get the maximum pleasure from food and to keep from slipping back to old patterns.
It's easy to slip back. You will have to fight to get back on track.
You are trying to rewire your brain. It takes less time to slip back then it does to stay on track.
Stress affects the pleasure center in the brain that makes you crave and want to eat more.
Exercise, do art, play w grandbaby, meditation.

Jeez, life still goes on with or without lists.

Made the decision to get more injections in my back. It should help the pain, and keep me away from the surgeon for awhile. So, here I sit waiting just to get an appointment with the pain specialist who will give me the injections.

I'm thinking I need to get over it and perhaps make another list about something.

Charity Wings 2nd Annual Seaside Soiree

2011-12-21T23:33:00.001-08:00

The 2nd annual Seaside Soiree was even better than the first. If you attended last year, you know how fun it was. If you attended this year…lucky you!

Here we all. I love this picture. What a great group of ladies. They are all so special and so talented.

Once again, we were at the Oceanside Marina Suites where we had an exquisite view of not only the marina, but also the jetty.

I could sit at the point of the property, right on the water, and watch boats of all sizes and shapes going out to sea, or coming back in the evening. In the early morning, the kayakers were plentiful and fun to watch, as I said good morning to my husband on the phone and drank my first cup of coffee. It was truly heaven.

The minute we got there, we began making things. We actually made an adorable badge pouch out of duck tape. The pouch was so we could carry our room key. You didn’t need to carry money because everything was inclusive, including the food, the suite and all the classes.

Here she is…

Miss Vicky! She was one of our class instructors. She taught us how to make an embellished bottle to add to our already cute mermaid necklace.

All of our food was excellent. There was not one thing I didn’t like, from the fabulous Italian food from Villa Capri, to the unbelievably yummy French Toast and Egg Casserole that Sheila made. In fact, Sheila made many of our meals. There’s nothing like an especially good tuna sandwich and a hot cup of soup when you’re in the middle of a creativity surge and don’t want to stop…particularity when it was made and served to you by someone else.

Did I mention PAMPERED! Oh yes! Thanks to Elena and Sheila and their incredibly caring staff, Glenna, Sarah, Ally, Lisa and Camille, we were pampered and loved all weekend.

It’s all in the details!

Here’s my roommate and new friend, Nadine who was a wonderful hoot! She made that darling apron.

We were so privileged to have Jen Cushman, mixed media artist and author of the book, Create, Resinate and Explore, as one of our teachers. She became friends immediately with everyone because that’s how she is… So loving and friendly!

We learned how to make Resin paper. All these ladies are so talented.

Jen is carefully stirring the ICE Resin.

We made a fabulous pendant that consisted of sand, shells, pearls and ICE Resin. After adding charms, sari fibers and a closure, we created a beautiful bracelet with the pendant.

Here is my resin paper.

We turned this resin paper into this necklace.

Meet the Diane’s. That’s what we called them because they are good friends and always together. “Where are the Diane’s?” Here they are in front of the room where everything happens…classes, meals, coffee, everything!

It was early December in San Diego.

We had beautiful weather.

Michelle Cummings is a returning instructor who taught how to make a beautiful beaded wand.

My sweet friends, Glenna and Nadine

Lovely lady, Cheryl Waters, Lead Fiskateer with Fiskars, taught us some painting and collage techniques.

Here is the beautiful collage painting that we each made in our class with Cheryl. It’s always amazing how, even with the same materials, each one is different.

Our fabulous volunteers served us an extraordinarily wonderful lunch in these cute sand pails.

Another wonderful returning teacher is Liz Hicks. She taught us how to do a journal cover using lots of interesting new techniques. Or, at least new to me.

I must tell you about the Giving Tree! Every morning and evening there were gifts for each of us on the Giving Tree. How special is that! These are beautiful ornaments that were handmade by Sheila.

We invited guests to our Dinner and Silent Auction on Saturday night. It was a blast! I won several items at the auction that I’ll treasure.

I wish I would have taken pictures of our suite. It was two bedroom, two bath, with a living room, dining room and full kitchen. We had five ladies in our suite and we had the best time together. At night, we would sit on our round couch and talk and laugh and enjoy each other. It was such a pleasure to bond with these ladies.

There is so much more that I wish I could tell you, but that might ruin it for next year. It’s all in the details!

Plans are already being made for the 3rd Annual Seaside Soiree. It will be the first weekend in December. Go to Charity Wings and get on the email list so that you get the information as it unfolds. You will be given the opportunity to make payments if you like, which is what I did this year. It’s so much easier on my budget.

I can’t wait to go again. It’s one of my most favorite events. I hope you’ll think about joining me in 2012

Technorati Tags: 2nd Annual Seaside Soiree,Oceanside Marina Suites,Miss Vicky,Villa Capri,Elena,Jen Cushman,ICE Resin,Michelle Cummings,Cheryl Waters,Fiskateer with Fiskars,Liz Hicks,Charity Wings

Being a YaYa is Fun!

2011-10-28T23:46:00.001-07:00

The babies were over on Monday. Matty likes to touch Alex. She's very intrigued by him.

Alex isn't sure how to handle her. Typical boy huh!

These two babies are cousins and they are only three weeks apart. Matty is 15 lbs. and Alex is 25 lbs. Big difference. Matty is in the 50 percentile and Alex is in the 96 percentile. Both of their scores are in height and weight.

I am really enjoying these little grandbabies.

Are You Going to Seaside Soiree Art Retreat?

2011-09-28T10:53:00.001-07:00

You simply must! I am! I absolutely can't wait! I had such a fabulous time last year. It is one of my favorite events because it's not only charity, but also class oriented. I came home with a wealth of knowledge and ideas, not to mention some neat projects. And, it was for Charity.

It's small and cozy...only 35 people. I like that. I spent time with friends and made some new ones.

The price is very reasonable considering everything...a gorgeous suite on the harbor, your own bed, all the food, and ALL the classes and supplies are included. Oh and, of course, a goody bag and goodies all weekend.

Go read about last year.

I blogged a lot about it last year. Go here for pics and my blog post.

Here are the details for this year:

December 2-4th, 2011

Oceanside Harbor, which is in San Diego County.

Go to Charity Wings to learn more and register. While you're there, be sure to check out this year's amazing artists. There's a list of them...including, Cheryl Waters, Traci Bautista, Jen Cushman, Paulette Adams. You get to take all the classes.

This is one art retreat you absolutely won't want to miss. I know you'll have a great time.

Technorati Tags: Charity Wings,Seaside Soiree,Cheryl Waters,Traci Bautista,Jen Cushman

Here Piggy Piggy

2011-08-24T21:54:00.001-07:00

I just have to tell you about my best friend, MB's brood. Yes, that is a pet piggy.

She has a pig, a Rottweiler, and two blind kitty's.

Ruben is the pig. He has only recently been adopted, but has had no trouble making himself quite at home. He sleeps indoors. He loves to go outside and nap, play and root around, but he's white so he can easily get sunburned.

Pigs have the mentality of a 3 year old so they must be watched and they require lots of attention. However, they also sleep about 18 hours a day.

When it becomes dark at night, it's like a trigger. Ruben immediately lays down on his bed, pulls his covers over himself and doesn't wake up for anything until about 8:00 the next morning. In this pic, he is napping beside his bed. See his little feet curled up under his big body.

Yes, Ruben is considerably over weight. His other family kept him inside all the time because they lived in the city where you are not suppose to have pigs. Now he has a nice yard to run, play, nap and graze in. You should see him run. It's a crack-up.

This is Abby the Rotty. She and Ruben have let each other know that they are not interested. She is an unbelievably submissive, sweet dog, but only to a point. You don't want to make her mad. Pigs have a bad trait in that they will push and push until they get themselves in trouble and then don't know how to get out. Another reason why Ruben has to be watched.

This is little Stevie Wonder. Stevie was born without eyeballs...hence the name. He truly is a wonder and one of the sweetest, most loving cats I've ever met. Being blind hasn't bothered him a bit. He literally plays fetch with a crinkle ball.

Last but certainly not least is Blind Kitty. There were lots of names, but that's the one that stuck. We also call her Mommasita. I don't know why. She doesn't have eyeballs either. She's a full grown, tiny kitty. She was there first and not particularly happy about the others.

Everyone of these animals are rescues. Thanks to people like my friend who open their hearts to provide these beautiful babies with their forever home.

A Fairy Class with Suzi Blu

2011-07-26T21:32:00.001-07:00

My friend Suzi Blu is going home to New Jersey.

Before she goes, we had to fit in one last class. We created a pretty fairy painting.

We started by drawing our faces in pencil. Then we added a couple of different textures, such as molding paste.

We used stencils for some of the design. The rest of the textures were added with a knife.

Suzi, Christine, Gina and Anna

Here's our little group of students. At this point we have completed the first day. Need to let the texture elements dry completely.

The next day, we began adding color with sprays, paints and powders. It was an awesome process.

Proud of my painting.

Gina and Anna with their beautiful paintings.

Suzi caught a few moments in between helping her students and not only created the painting above, but also worked on several of her unfinished projects.

This was our inspiration piece that Suzi actually created for the class.

It was a super informative class because of all the techniques we learned. It was a wonderful, rich class because of the pretty face we learned to draw. It was a fabulous experience because I learned to paint a beautiful fairy and gained so much more confidence in my art. Suzi is not only a fabulous artist and teacher, but she also has a unique ability to reinforce confidence that one doesn't even realize they already possess.

Well, now that my Suzi is leaving, it will be online classes for me for awhile. Rest assured, I'll be saving my pennies to visit my Jersey girl very soon.

Technorati Tags: Suzi Blu

Firsts

2011-07-08T11:07:00.001-07:00

Here they are! My first tomatoes this year. What's cool about the small cluster of tomatoes is that they came from a rogue plant that just showed up in my yard. Plus, this particular plant is growing in the shade, which unusual for tomatoes. I couldn't wait for the last green one to ripen. I had to pick them.

I have my first illness of the year. Hope it's my last for years to come. I've been sick for three weeks. My poor husband has had a fever for three days. He's taking antibiotics. Being the rebel, I never went to the doctor, so still struggling a bit. Getting better though!

Last night, I managed to drag myself to

Kat & Elena

Book Club. I'm so glad I did because we had lots of fun and it was the shot in the arm that I needed. It was good to laugh and be with friends.

Can't think of anymore firsts because I haven't done anything in three weeks.

Technorati Tags: Book Club,Elena

Cancer Coping Center Pastry Class Fundraiser

2011-06-20T18:24:00.001-07:00

Saturday was a beautiful, summer day and I was one of the lucky ladies invited to spend it at Maryam's lovely, comfortable home in San Diego. We were there in support of her charity, Cancer Coping Center.

Maryam provided an incredible, gourmet luncheon, a pastry class and a creative, fun swag bag.

Chef Yves

The luncheon started with the most delicious chilled cucumber soup I've ever tasted. It continued with an incredible, delicately made salad, including vegetables, chicken, mouthwatering pork tenderloin and apricots, pate', biscuits and more. Dessert was an authentic, seven layer, French, chocolate cake. (I know there is an absolutely fabulous name for this cake and I wish I knew it.) Suffice it to say, my pallet was in heaven.

My descriptions of Chef Yves cuisine are rudimentary. I wish I could convey this exquisite luncheon in better terms. It was awesome!

The class was presented by Executive French Pastry Chef Yves Fournier. He is a fifth generation French Pastry Chef. Check out his website for further information on booking a pastry class for your friends, a dinner party or private lessons. You won't be disappointed!

Chef Yves not only taught us, but also provided us with the ingredients to make French Macaroons. We learned how to make an easy, yet phenomenal Chocolate Mousse and Crème Mousseline. All of these recipes are so versatile. Chef Yves gave us many different ideas and ways to use these wonderful dishes.

Of course, it wasn't enough to learn how to make them. We happily sampled everything.

Maryam is a natural born, wonderful hostess and friend.

I was delighted to be invited to share this time with her.

Technorati Tags: Cancer Coping Center,Executive French Pastry Chef Yves Fournier

Wounded Heart

2011-06-07T17:42:00.001-07:00

Can you tell I've been going to therapy lately. Yes, right in the middle of some messy emotional stuff, I decided it was time to finish this project. What I came up with is a Wounded Heart. I suppose it's my wounded heart. The main substrate is a piece of cardboard covered with casting plaster called Rigid Wrap. It can be purchased at Dick Blick or Michaels. The heart and the wings are also card board covered with Rigid Wrap. Then lots of paint and a little collage. I learned this at Jackie Baxted's art meet-up. I found this hysterical video on how to make a mask. These ladies are awesome. They should be on TV.

My journal page with a Suzi Blu art stamp and lots of paint, watercolor pencils and ink.

Technorati Tags: Suzi Blu,Jackie Baxted,Dick Blick

Much Better!

2011-05-28T10:03:00.001-07:00

I was making protein drinks in the blender. My blender is loud when I use frozen fruits and ice. Alex was in the kitchen with me and I didn't want the noise to hurt his little ears so I put the head phones on him. Hee Hee. He didn't seem to mind at all.

Much better than blender noise.

He's a happy baby and has happy parents and happy grandparents.

Ten Seconds of New-Born Goodness

2011-05-10T22:08:00.000-07:00

What's better than this?...a beautiful, healthy baby! Thank you God.

One of the things I like to do, particularly when things don't feel quite right in my world, is count my blessings. I find that counting my blessings, helps to center me, and remind me what's important.

Lately, I find myself counting my miracles.

Life truly is good especially when we count our miracles!

Mother's Day

2011-05-08T15:20:00.001-07:00

This is all of us in Jackie's art studio.

I recently took a class from Jackie Baxted and Rita Reade. Jackie taught us fabric collage and Rita taught us soldered charms.

This is a picture of my grandmother. She was an actress. She and my grandfather acted in vaudeville, the Mississippi River Boat, The Old Savoy Theater, and their last venue before their deaths was the Starlight Opera.

In the picture Grandma is wearing a costume for her roll in Showboat. She is also wearing the cameo broach and the coral necklace that is attached to the collage.

Prior to the class we sent Jackie a picture that we wanted to use as our focal point. She sized the pictures and printed them on fabric. She also provided us with wonderful tea-dyed canvas and other fabrics, vintage lace and lots of bling.

This is a cute little picture of my mother when she was a little girl.

I think I may give it to her for Mother's day, but it's sort of a pull/tug thing. I really want to keep it for myself.

Rita gave each of us a gift bag with the supplie s to create soldered letters to go on our collage. She is excellent at soldering and taught me so much about lifting the iron, holding the iron down longer and letting the solder flow. We made wonderful letter charms that ultimately spelled a word.

A beautiful collage by Rita

This is Sally's awesome collage.

Robin's gorgeous collage.

It was a small intimate group of incredibly creative ladies, which was so nice because we were able to become friendly with everyone right away.

Jackie, Rita and Sally

Jackie who is an awesome friend, hostess and teacher spent time helping us put fabrics together and burn the edges with a heat gun.

Rita and Kat

I fell in love with Rita Reade immediately. She is warm and engaging and also a fabulous teacher.

I was so happy to see my wonderful friends Sally Fasano,

Suzi Blu and of course, Gigi.

Robin Sanchez

Robin is a lady that I recently met at Jackie's. She inspired a group of us to do a vintage rhinestone earring swap, which I'm looking forward to. It was a nice surprise to see her again.

Sharon

Patty

I met Sharon and Patty for the first time, and I love that we were immediately joking and laughing like old friends.

It was a fabulous class. I love a class that allows me to spend time with friends and produce something that I really like.

Scrapbook Expo

2011-04-29T21:50:00.001-07:00

These canvas luggage tags have been stamped with Suzi Blu art, and then painted with Faber Castell watercolor pencils, Pitt Pens and Gelatos. The canvas luggage tags are from Maya Road.

I went to the Expo today with Jackie and Suzi. The Expo doesn't change much from year to year, but I still managed to spend money. We Spent most of the day in the Charity Wings booth with Elena and Cynthia and the rest of the CW crew. It was really lots of fun just being with the girls, making some new friends and making art.

Suzi was doing make and takes. Jackie and I ended up sitting there painting these cute canvas luggage tags.

It's not too late to have fun at the Scrapbook Expo in Del Mar. Do some make and takes, do some crazy inexpensive shopping and go to the crop/anniversary party. It's all happening tomorrow. It's Charity Wings/Scrapbook Royalty's 5-year anniversary. It's going to be very special. Plus the drawing for the Charity Wings Art for Japan raffle will take place. There are so many awesome items in the raffle. It's only $5.00 a ticket and the drawing is tomorrow at the party. Don't miss this

Technorati Tags: Suzi Blu,Elena,Charity Wings,Jackie Baxted

. Go here to buy tickets.

Fun...Fun...Fun...

2011-04-28T18:20:00.001-07:00

Awwe ha ha! I'm not really as terrified as I look. I'm actually totally smitten! What a fabulous experience! Two wonderful daughters giving us these two fabulous grandbabies that are only three weeks apart.

Sarah's baby, Matty Jo.

Taylor's baby, Alex.

Hee Hee!

Two Miracles

2011-04-27T11:01:00.001-07:00

It's a busy time. We had two new grandbabies in three weeks. They are healthy and beautiful and we are in love.

First came Alex who was 8lbs. 14oz. and 21 1/2" tall.

Then came Matty Jo who was 8lbs. 4oz. and 19" tall.

I find this new baby stage irresistible and it doesn't last long so I'm trying to get as much as I can. I love all the little shapes their mouths make and the cooing sounds.

Family has come from all over the country to see these two babies. It's been exciting and fun to watch.

Believe it or not, this family has one more baby coming this year. My niece is due in July. Her first. Can't wait!

Life is good!

Happy Easter Everyone!

2011-04-24T10:29:00.000-07:00

Here's an adorable little video and Easter Giveaway from Suzi Blu.

Check it out here.

All you have to do is add this cute badge to your blog and let her know about it.

Go ahead!

Do it!

I did!

One of us might win a fabulous gift certificate.

I've Been On Sabbatical from Blogging & Facebook

2011-03-19T22:51:00.000-07:00

I look forward to being back soon.

I'm also looking forward to have three new babies in the family this year. The first is due any minute. Say a prayer for us.

I'm also looking forward to getting my head and my back into better shape.

I'll be back with you soon.

Live at CHA

2011-01-05T22:28:00.001-08:00

Event Details: LIVE at CHA!

Date:	January 29, 30, & 31, 2011
Time:	10 am till 6pm
Location:	"The Charity Wings Parlor" on the CHA show floor Link to the online event will be emailed to you after you register. You must log in with your Charity Wings Member Id when you join the event.
Fee:	$48 (non refundable) come with a swag bag of goodies and make and takes shipped to your home one week before! (over $50 value) and chances to win giveaways throughout the day!

Your registration fee entitles you to AN ALL ACCESS PASS!:

3 days of CHA show floor live streaming.
An outstanding swag bag that includes at least 5 make and takes from leading designers and manufacturers as well as other goodies!
First peek at the new releases and first crack at items posted on the eBay auction for Crops of Luv. (first bid often wins!)
Exclusive interviews with Designers and the Charity Wings "Icons"
Fun Impromptu interviews with interesting sights from the show floor.
A special signed item from one of the CHA designers.
Giveaways throughout the whole show!

Goodbye Sweet Ruby Sue

2010-12-27T21:13:00.001-08:00

It's a sad day at our house today. Our beloved Ruby of more than 15 years is gone. She was the best dog in the world. She was extremely smart and so good. She was loyal and loving beyond words...truly a best friend!

We feel good that she had a wonderful life. She was raised with three kids who adored her and parents who thought of her as a gift from God. We were so blessed to have had her in our lives for such a wonderfully long time.

Go to heaven now Ruby Girl. There will be no more pain. Be with God where you will be able to run like the wind again. Find all your brothers and sisters. Find George and Lucas. They will guide you home. We love you and we will miss you terribly. Someday, we will see you again baby girl.

RIP Dear Dean I love you!

2010-12-21T00:18:00.001-08:00

I have had so many unbelievable, life-changing miracles in my life that I am losing count. Because of these miracles, my faith is very strong. However, like Melody Ross mentioned in her recent blog post, sometimes you don't even realize you may have experienced a miracle until you take time to analyze the situation.

My most recent miracle came last week when my stepfather passed away unexpectedly. My mom and Dean have been together for more than 25 years and live in Northern California. He had surgery on Monday for a blocked artery in his pelvic area. He did fine in the surgery but afterwards, his blood pressure was low and his heart beat was irregular. Then the next day, his kidneys failed and his other organs began to shut down. Doctors did not know why other than to say he was a very sick man. On Wednesday morning he passed away with my mother and his son at his side.

He was a wonderful, sweet, gentle, very intelligent, lovely man who had been taking great care of my mother for many years, but most especially in recent years after the physical problems she has endured. The amount of care that he gave her was unmatched by anything I had ever witnessed. His unexpected death has left us reeling and unsure of the future for my mom.

The night before his surgery, I asked my mom to tell him that I love him and that I wished him good luck on his surgery. I told her that I didn’t want to make him come to the phone. She said, “I think you should speak to him.” (Maybe it was her unconscious premonition!)

I did speak to him and we talked for about 20 minutes and then we both said, “I love you.” That was the last thing my step dad and I said to each other. What a blessing for me…a gift from God.

As I thought about this, I realized that I have had three fathers in my life that I truly loved. Strangely, I received miracles at each of their deaths.

My previous stepfather who my mom was married to for more than 25 years was diagnosed with renal cancer and given six months to live. The day after receiving this information, I was in a major car accident. It was truly a miracle in itself that I lived. I was physically very broken and went through more than a year of operations and recovery. Because of this, I was not able to work.

During the last six months of my step dad’s life, I was able to spend a lot of time with him…time that I would not have had if I had been working. I was at his side when he took his last breath. I was positive of his love for me and mine for him. I had no guilt when he passed. I only had faith.

I know it may see odd that I would think of a car accident that I still, to this day, physically suffer from, as a miracle in my life. But it’s the only explanation I have for the love that I was able to share with my step dad in his last days. To be able to kiss him and tell him, “I love you” right before he passed was such a gift to me…one that I will always appreciate.

My biological father died when I was in my 30’s. My mother had been married to him for ten years and my stepmother was married to him a year after the divorce until he died. I hadn’t seen him for about a year. Out of the blue, my step mom called me because she was worried about him. I went over to see him and he was sitting in a chair. I could tell he was sick and maybe not sure of who I was…I thought. I went to him and held his face in my hands and kissed him on the cheek and said, “I love you daddy.” He said, “I love you too Kat.” Three days later, he died in his sleep. Oh my Heaven, that was such a gift from God. I didn’t even know he was sick and I hadn’t seen him in so long…because of a disagreement and pride. As soon as my step mom called me and told me he had passed I knew what God had done for me and for him.

My father had been an attorney in San Diego for more than forty years. Several weeks after his passing, my family was having a life celebration for him. I happened to be in court on that day on a financial situation. I had my four-year old daughter with me because we were going to go to grandpa’s funeral after we took care of the court business. It started to get late and I wasn’t being called. I went over to my lawyer and explained who my dad was and what the situation was and that I might need to leave. He knew my dad and was stunned that he had passed away. He spoke to the judge. The next thing I knew it was my turn before the judge. Turns out he knew my dad also. As my little girl and I stood hand in hand before him, he literally gave my dad a eulogy right there in the court room. Other lawyers and clerks had come into the courtroom and were standing along the wall beside and behind the bench. Some were crying. The judge discussed my dad for about ten minutes. He talked about my dad’s expert contribution to law and how respected he was and much he had actually taught the court. The judge honored my father in a way that I would have missed all together had I not been in the right place at the right time. No one wants to be in court, but if I hadn't been there, and if I hadn't been there on that day, I would not have received that unbelievable moment in my life that meant more to me than I can ever express. A miracle for me! I was in shock. I floated out of that court room in God’s arms.

While I have lost all three of my father figures and while our relationships were not always blissful, I am happy to have had them in my life and I am blessed to have loved them and to have been loved by them. And I thank God for His unwavering guidance.

Thanks to Melody for inspiring to write this article about my own life experience and to take the time to realize the miracle.

Seaside Soiree and Charity Wings

2010-12-07T10:38:00.000-08:00

For three days I was in absolute Seaside Soiree sensory euphoria.

In fact, even the last few days of reflection on my weekend are only now just beginning to be infiltrated by the reality of chores, grocery shopping...you know, the real life stuff.

The first annual Seaside Soiree was like being at an incredible entertainment park with some of my favorite people. My mind was empty of everything but having fun.

Everywhere we looked, everywhere we turned, there was something amazing going on including, making new fabulous friends and spending time with some of our favorite friends.

The classes were like being on a wild ride.

The teachers who, in my opinion, are some of the best included, Liz Hicks, Suzi Blu, Miss Vicki Breslin, Alisa Burke, Michelle Cummings and Melody Ross.

We made paintings, royal princess beaded crowns, sea shelled frames, stamped journal books, painted canvas purses and more.

Like fairy princesses, Elena, Sheila and the wonderful Charity Wings fairies gave us gifts throughout the entire event. Every class included gifts. Every time we went to bed, we had gifts on our beautiful tye dyed pillow. Actually, I should have brought an extra suitcase for all my projects and presents.

We stayed at the Oceanside Marina Suites, which was located right on the harbor. The accommodations included 2 bedroom, 2 bath suites that were literally 15 feet from the water.

Oceanside, California in the winter.

The view right outside our suite.

A man and his bird.

Harbor...we could hear the fog horn at night. So peaceful here.

Sally and Georgia

Living room in our suite

Kitchen in our suite.

Best picture of the night, Alicia and Kathryn having fun.

Me and my friend.

Elena and Jessie being cute! Awe Ha

Miss Vicki, Suzi and Maryanne

Miss Vicki and her baubles and bangles

Elena, Miss Vicki and Alicia telling secrets in our room.

Elena's birthday present from Kelly.

Hangin' with my good friend Sally.

Kat, Amy and Glenna at sunset.

Roommates, Miss Vicki and Camille

Princess Elena provided us with bacon so that every morning we could wake up to the smells and sounds of bacon cooking.

CSS Book club friends, Cynthia, Kat, Alicia, Kathryn

Crown time.

Danette & Kat

Out of the Box Book Club at Urban Barn

2010-12-02T22:08:00.000-08:00

Here we are at the Urban Barn in Escondido. What a fun backdrop for our Out of the Box Book Club. The Urban Barn is an incredibly inspiring, artsy, consignment store. It is very vintage and a true experience. Next weekend, they are having their monthly Street Faire, which is a real treat and a great place to buy gifts.

Tonight we celebrated the holidays with hord'oeuvres, desserts and a white elephant exchange. The only criteria for our exchange is that it must be handmade with love. Everyone rose to the occasion and we had a blast.

Glenna, Pam, Kat, Elena, Nancy, Ivy, Sheila, Maureen

Elena multi-tasking as usual

Linda, Urban Barn Owner and Donna

Nancy went home with one of Elena's gorgeous buttons and baubles bracelet

Danette was so happy with the little girl, made by Nancy. The sad face is because she only got to keep her for minutes. It seems that in a white elephant exchange, you can steal other already opened gifts. And, that's just what Glenna did. Awe, poor Danette!

Ooops! Another robber came along and stole the little girl from Glenna.

Awe ha...Guess who went home with the little girl!

Suzi Blu - Self Guidance Video Portrait Classes

2010-11-16T13:36:00.000-08:00

You have heard me credit Suzi Blu for simply changing my creative life. She has taught me so much about drawing a face and creating a mixed media piece of art that I am proud of.

Well, here's your chance to learn from the expert herself.

Only $35.00 for three classes,

including 39 videos.

You will never find a deal like this again!

Suzi's classes are normally a huge bargain at $55.00 and that is for one class.

They are a bargain because besides all the videos, which are yours to keep, she also provides pdfs, links, inspirational ideas and pictures, complete supply lists with links, and unwavering confidence in you. I don't believe there is any other artist on the web that offers as much.

Don't miss this opportunity!

Three of Suzi's most popular classes

for only $35.00.

Go to Suzi's website for further details.

Happy Halloween

2010-11-02T09:21:00.000-07:00

Better late than never! Hope you had fun. We didn't get a single trick or treater.

This is my sort of pretty but stern witch. Not finished. I don't seem to finish things these days. I need to analyze that.

Suzi Blu Stamps

2010-10-27T21:56:00.000-07:00

Suzi stamp used in a journal page

Colored with Copics Markers

I really have fun with Suzi Blu stamps. Suzi is a world renowned artist and I just can't get enough of her petite doll style. Her stamps are awesome in a card. I like to color them with paint, pencils and markers. I love the intensity of the colors with markers. I love to use them in collage or in journal pages. I thought this little Petite Girl would be perfect popping out of a birdhouse on my journal page. Go to Suzi Blu's website for a wonderful video and instructions on making your own collage journal page.

You can find Suzi Stamps at your local scrapbooking store. If they don't have them, ask the manager to order them from Unity Stamp Company. In fact, go to Unity yourself and order stamps. Right now, they are having a 40% off sale.
Or, go to the Eclectic Paperie for the full line.

I Have Wonderful News!

2010-10-22T22:37:00.001-07:00

My friends think I'm keeping a secret and I am. I've been dying to share. So here goes...

I have two fabulous daughters in their late 20's and they are both preggers. Yes, I'm going to be a grandma twice. No they didn't plan this together. They are less than 4 weeks apart. It's amazing! Sarah is already an amazing mother, and anyone who knows Taylor knows that she will also be an excellent mother. These babies will truly be blessed to be raised by these two women.

Taylor is 17 weeks and last week I went to the Dr. with her and saw my grandchild in utero. Her Doc is pretty confident it's a boy, but I'm not sure. I saw what they saw, but I'm just not certain yet. If he is a boy, he is already a very active little boy. I was able to see him moving his arms and legs all around. He seemed to be playing for an audience. That's why I'm not so sure. Maybe it was a hand that we saw. I love him already...or her...and I can't stop thinking about the image of that little baby. Taylor cried through the whole procedure...she and Paul are both ecstatic.

Sarah is 13 weeks and I can't wait for her to have her ultrasound. She thinks she's having a girl, which I think would be very cool because she has two wonderful boys who need a little sister to love and adore.

I'm over the top about this. I can't believe we are going to have two new babies in our family.

Holly's Garden Rescue Saves Barkley

2010-10-08T22:31:00.000-07:00

Farewell to Barkley. Barkley is a Pomeranian/Maltese mix. He has been my father-in-law's dog for 3 years. Barkley's human mom passed away in February. Dad and Barkley have been living with my husband and me since. Dad has decided to move into an apt. and doesn't think it would be fair to Barkley to live in an apt. We can't keep him because we have four of our own furry children. I called Kathy from Holly's Garden Rescue and she not only came out and picked up Barkley, but she has already found him a wonderful home...in less than 24 hours. God bless Holly's Garden Rescue and it's dedicated staff.

Barkley's new home is in a more rural area, which is good for him because he has energy. He has a new 10-year old human brother that I know he will adore and worship. Plus, he has a new mom, and since he loves women, I know his new mom will be very happy with this little sweetheart. His new mom is a groomer and raises Poms. Can it get any better? I am so happy and grateful to Kathy at Holly's Garden Rescue for her immediate love for Barkley.

Holly's Garden Rescue is a San Diego, Calif. based non-profit (501c3) organization that specializes in saving small and special needs dogs. They would welcome tax-deductible donations to help them care for these animals and find them wonderful homes such as Barkley's new home. Please visit their website for more information.

Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight | Video on TED.com

2010-10-06T18:18:00.000-07:00

Tony Stewart Wins at Atlanta and Cinches a Spot in the Chase

2010-09-09T22:18:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Tony Stewart, co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing and driver of the #14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Emory Healthcare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia.

Let's go Tony! Take it away!

Credit: Getty Images

More Soldered Bottles

2010-09-06T17:30:00.000-07:00

I told you I was on the hunt for some more bottles for soldering. I found this beautiful blue bottle in an antique store in La Mesa. It matches my first bottle. Now I have a pair of pretty blue, soldered bottles.

Elena Etcheverry and I spent the day at Suzi Blu's house soldering. The temperature outside was in the 90's, but we thought it would be a good idea to solder out on the patio (first mistake). Since none of us were especially experienced at soldering, it turned into a bit of "the blind leading the blind." In fact, it was downright scary at times. Since we were live on the web, many people across the world witnessed this fun but rather hysterical episode. Suzi was getting wild with the soldering iron and I was getting so nervous that she would burn herself that I had to unplug her. Then she dropped her bottle, which, of course, broke. Elena came to the rescue and foil taped and soldered the broken bottle along the JAGGED EDGE (eek). By now, I was a basket case. In the end, the broken bottle became a very interesting wind chime for Suzi's patio.

As the day progressed, we were so hot and near crazed. At one point my two friends looked at me and freaked out. I was red as a tomato and looking like a total stroke victim. Suzi immediately made me go inside and we were done...not only with our bottles but cooked well-done from the sun.

I must say, we made some pretty bottles, we laughed, and I'm happy to say, no one was hurt during the filming of that event.

This is a close up of the original bottle I soldered at the Art Bar in Miss Vicky's class.

Tags with Claire

2010-09-05T22:55:00.000-07:00

Tags were made with Tim Holtz distress inks, grundge board and grundge paper. My friend Sally and I had fun grunging up the grundge board in a class with Claire, at Stamping Details. These are all Claire's clever and creative designs.

Out of The Box at Urban Barn

2010-09-02T22:56:00.001-07:00

What’s more fun than a group of girlfriends getting together and sharing art. It’s definitely one of my favorite things. Tonight our Out of the Box Book Club gathered at the Urban Barn in Escondido. What an awesome, inspirational place. It’s a store in a warehouse setting with tons of fun vignettes of vintage and shabby chic. I don’t think there’s another place in San Diego that comes close to matching the unique experience this store offers. We are so thrilled that Urban Barn owner, Linda, decided to move into our neighbor hood from Temecula.

We just set up a couple of tables and chairs right in the front of the store. The doors were up, the sun was setting and it couldn't have been a more beautiful night.

Glenna's gorgeous banner

Kat's Happy Girl painting - taught by Suzi Blu

Pam went to the CREATE Retreat in Chicago and learned the techniques for this custom book.

Pam also shared this beautiful collage.

Each cycle we do an art exchange. This cycle it was birds.

Here are Bonnie's fabulous soldered charm birds.

Kat's chipboard birds with butterfly hanger

Elena's creative magnetic boards with a little birdie magnet.

Allison's sweet paper piecing birds

Danette's cute little fat birds all made with circles.

Sheila's awesome embellished birds using items that she currently had on hand.

Pam's gorgeous smooch birdies.

Judy took an example from our book and added her own flair, which turned out adorable.

Glenna's lovely vintage bird tag.

We each took home quite a collection of pretty birds.

We couldn't end the night without a tune from our lovely Book Club leader, Elena.

Jodi Ohl Online Class

2010-08-29T21:17:00.000-07:00

Do you love Jodi Ohl? Head over to her website and check out her new online class entitled Let's Face It. While you're there, sign up for her newsletter.

Italian Composition with Chris Cozen

2010-08-20T13:04:00.001-07:00

Several weeks ago I was lucky enough to get into one of Chris Cozen's classes at Stamping Details. Chris is a world renowned artist and has a gift for color. Please check out her website and online classes. The class was called Italian Composition. Chris had just returned from France and Italy armed with wonderful background ideas. My class was the last of five classes in one weekend so I actually was a bit behind everyone. Most of the students had signed up for all five classes and had already made many backgrounds that were extraordinary.

I made two panels and don't ask me how I ended up with these colors. Orange is my least favorite color and my second least favorite is yellow. Talk about stepping out of your box! I managed to get the paint on, but I really didn't have time to build it up because it wouldn't have dried in time to do the decoupage portion of the class. I find it odd, but the more I looked at it, the more I began to like it.

Chris had taken tons of pictures of architecture while in Europe. Plus, she had picked up some old journals and different bits of ephemera, which she shared with the class. The written collage element on my panel was taken from a journal that was hand written in the 1800's.

At this point, I have the collage portion on and then I courageously added a little swipe of blue paint and called it done. As I looked at it, it seemed a little flat to me. Well, of course, there was no build up. At the advise of my friend Suzi Blu, who is also an artist and an online teacher, I added some Golden Bead Gel and Molding Medium and let it dry. I loved that, but it still wasn't quite right. At the advice of another artist friend, Nina, I added the brown paint to one of the panels and a very dark purple paint to the other.

After working on these panels and playing with them and showing them to my friends, I think they're finally fun. I think I'm finished. I wish you could see the depth that they finally have. I took the pictures on an angle so maybe you could see. It's funny how sometimes art can take you a couple of hours and you're done. Other times, it takes however long it takes to get to that place, wherever that may be in your own head, when you finally say, ok, I think it's done...mmm, but maybe not. Ha Ha

I hope Chris would be happy with my novice work.

Art Bar With Miss Vicky

2010-08-19T21:55:00.000-07:00

The Crew with their bottles

The Carlsbad Book Club ladies have been trying to think of a fun place to go on a field trip. Elena came up with the idea of going to the Art Bar, which is located in Orange County, or Santa Ana to be precise. If you want to go somewhere really cool for a class or just to visit and shop, the Art Bar is the place to go. It's an art store, but I found the allure to be the ambiance. It is truly designed for people to go there and make art. This fun store is heaped with wonderful art supplies to play with and a whole bunch of unusual items to purchase. You feel totally comfortable just digging in and getting your hands dirty. There's something so unique and quaint about the Art Bar that you are truly inspired to create.

Kat & Pam

My Sister and I drove up to OC last Saturday and met up with 10 girlfriends, including Miss Vicky. Miss Vicky brought all the supplies and instructed us on how to make beautiful soldered bottles. We had crystals, beads, shells, and various other embellies to add to the inside of our bottles. Then we learned how to embellish the outside of the bottle and solder it all together. Once soldered, we added a patina that gave the bottle an old-world sort of look.

Kat & Pam

I loved it so much that I've already been on the hunt for bottles and I believe I have found my next beautiful creation.

Miss Vicky

Then we went into downtown Santa Ana, which is full of European stores and antique shops. We had a delicious lunch, went shopping, but most of all we laughed and giggled and really did have a hoot of a time. It was a great day. Good idea Elena!

Suzi Blu's Birthday Bash/Fundraiser

2010-08-11T22:07:00.000-07:00

What a crazy fun day we had at Stamping Details a couple of weeks ago. A group of like minded, artsy girls got together and celebrated Suzi Blu's birthday by having a fundraiser for Holly's Garden Rescue. The final count was $530 with only 12 ladies.

We spent the day journaling and chatting and just generally playing. Suzi shared some fun techniques and provided birthday gifty bags that included templates for us to use in our journals. We commented on how all of us could use the same templates and end up with pages that were completely different. Everyone went home with a couple of journal pages that they really loved.

We went live on Suzi's website and many of our online visitors stayed with us all day.

As with only the classiest birthday parties, we enjoyed birthday hats, balloons, flowers, presents, awesome cupcakes from Cupcake Love, fun prizes from Suzi, singing and lots of artsy love.

We also had a stream of visitors, including members of Holly's Garden Rescue, a registered non-profit, who spoke to us about their organization, which rescues small breed dogs who are in danger of being euthanized. They will get the call from a shelter that 1 or more dogs is going to be killed that day and Holly's Garden jumps in the car and rescues them. They will drive all over, sometimes several counties to different shelters in one day. If you are inspired to help by fostering a dog, or donating to this wonderful mission, I encourage you to go to their website.

A couple of our most popular guests were Gigi and Finney who came dressed in their birthday best. Suzi has some wonderful pictures of them on her website.

Our own private photographer, Rhiana spent the entire day taking pictures of this fabulous event. I hope you get a chance to see them. We had such a fantastic time.

Suzi Blu's Birthday Partaay!

2010-08-02T21:46:00.000-07:00

Suzi Blu is celebrating her birthday

by hosting a wonderful charity event for

Holly's Garden.

Holly's Garden is a local non-profit organization that

rescues dogs in jeopardy of being euthanized.

Suzi recently adopted Finnegan from

Holly's Garden

and would love for you to join her in giving back.

Birthday Party all Day

The theme of the event will be a super fun and colorful

birthday party.

Papier Story

But wait, you will be creating a Papier Story in your art journals using Suzi's templates and designs.

Bring your journals and your colored pencils.

You will learn some incredibly fun techniques and

there will be surprises and prizes all day long.

Partaay Details

Where:
Stamping Details
14009 Midland Road
Poway, CA 92064
858-513-8024
http://www.stampingdetails.com/
Call to reserve your spot today as there is limited seating.

Here is the website for your

supply list:
www.stampingdetails.com/cgi-bin/evinfo.php?on=9202439
Suzi will also be bringing fun and interesting items for us to play with.

When:
Sunday, August 8th, 2010
11:00 am - 4:00 pm

Cost: $45

Suzi is so excited to say that absolutely all proceeds from the workshop fees
will be donated to

Holly's Garden.

2010-07-22T22:09:00.000-07:00

I seem to be so inspired when I do art at other people's houses. Again, I was at Suzi's house and we were in the creative groove. Suzi made the most adorable board book. Go to her website to see her work and take her classes. You'll love everything you learn from her.

I made this piece from beginning (blank board) to completion. It's the first time I've ever collaged and painted in a grid like this. I've done smaller grids, but this was fun. I especially like the black and white check on the side. I used Golden's crackle paste, which was fun. There is a lot of paint on this board. Strangely, my least favorite colors are yellow and orange. How this ended up being those colors is crazy. It just simply evolved that way. It was fun to step out of my color box.

I'm a huge fan of many of the Stampington magazines. I was inspired to do this particular grid process by an article in this month's Somerset Studio. The artist is E'layne Koeningsberg.

"For Tomorrow and It's Needs"

I liked the first one so much that I made another one for my pig loving girlfriend Elena. This one is super grungy...but it's purple so it's all good. Now purple...I like...no I love. I really enjoyed making this painting. I added beads and ribbons to it because Elena's a princess and she needed a little bit of glitz.

Grunge Panels

2010-07-19T14:09:00.000-07:00

Recently took a fun class at Stamping Details with Carol Murphy and created these collages. She calls them Garden Girl Grunge Panels. There were inspired by Carol's Spotlight Artist article published in Somerset Studio Gallery Summer 2007.

Soldering 101

2010-07-18T12:14:00.000-07:00

I've been lucky to spend some quality time with my friend and teacher, Suzi Blu . Every time we get together I make something fun. She totally inspires me. This particular day, we went bead shopping at South Sun Beads, and then ended up breaking out the soldering stuff. I haven't soldered in literally over 10 years when I took a stained glass class. Needless to say, it's not like riding a bike. (Actually, I got on a bike recently and that was not an easy or pretty sight either...so I don't know where that saying came from!) It takes tons of practice. However, there's something to be said about the rough bad soldering job too. I think it looks kind of old and rustic. Suzi gave me this pretty picture and I added some beads and made it into a little wall hanging.

Beading

2010-07-07T19:30:00.001-07:00

I really like beading and I made these jewelry pieces for my mom. It's mostly turquoise and crystal. There's an awesome bead store in No. California where she lives. It's called Talisman. I usually try to go whenever I'm up there. She picked out most of the beads herself when I was visiting her last month. I brought them home, added a few of my own beads and this is what came of it. I made necklaces long enough to go over her head, and a memory wire bracelet because she can't do clasps. It's fun and relaxing. I hope she likes them.

BirthWeek

2010-07-06T12:59:00.000-07:00

I told Dave that I feel like I'm at the age where from now on, instead of a "Birthday", I'm going to have a "Birthweek". He said, "Does that mean I have to get you a present everyday of the week?" WELL YEAH!!! (He totally stepped right into that one.) So today he buys me this beautiful new Boise SoundDock. My birthday isn't until Friday, but OMGosh, he learns quick. Thank you baby! You're my heart.

2010-07-04T19:13:00.000-07:00

Fourth of July Goodness

Sparkler Girl

OMGosh! I've been so busy with my Suzi Blu paintings. I created Sparkler Girl all by myself. You know how I'm always talking about my Suzi Blu classes. You really must check out her online school. She teaches us how to make pretty girls with pretty faces. It's opened a whole new creative world for me. I'm a scrapbooker, but now I can paint pretty faces and I'm making pretty paintings all the time. Her classes are so inexpensive and you absolutely get way more than your money's worth. Taking her classes have changed my creative life and given me confidence in my art. Incidentally, that's what Suzi's teachings are all about...helping you not only learn how to draw and paint, but inspiring you to know that you can do it. She is a very positive influence that you will love.

Yesterday, Suzi taught us how to do angels in a class at Stamping Details. What a wonderful class. Right after class I had to come home and look at my videos again. Oh yes, she let's you keep the videos. I don't know any other online art teacher that lets you download and keep the videos. In fact, I don't want to show you my angel yet because, after watching a couple of videos last night, I now see things that I want to redo. In fact, I think I need to touch up Sparkler Girl's eyes a little bit. Ha Ha! Woooo Suzi, I'm addicted to Petite Dolls!

Can't wait for Mermaid class. I love making pretty mermaids.

Thank you Suzi Blu for all that you do.

My First This Year

2010-07-01T08:54:00.000-07:00

There is so much unfinished business around here that my head swims. And there, right in the middle, is my first tomato of the season. It's called Husky Red Cherry. It's so cute!

My friend Debra use to grow tomatoes all the time and when I tried, I got worms. Not this year!

This year, I have three pots of beautiful tomatoes and I can't wait to eat them and give them away.

Dad has been working in the yard lately and it's all ready for summer. Things are trimmed and cleaned up.

I love taking pictures of florals and this year, I'm going to have a couple of plants to photograph and maybe collage.

Prizes Prizes Prizes!!!

2010-05-28T19:17:00.000-07:00

Want to win prizes?

Scrapbook Royalty is is soooo excited to team up with Pink Pineapple Scrapbooks, Suzi Blu, Jennifer Priest, Stephanie Ackerman, and Corina Nielsen, for a fun one week "click-ity click, hop-ity hop, bounce-ity bounce" through blog land!! CAN YOU SAY "BLOG HOP BABY!!"

Go to any one of these websites for directions to winning prizes. It's easy and it's fun!

CRESCENDOH LAUNCH

2010-05-24T11:52:00.000-07:00

The amazing launch party for Jenny's Doh's new Company, Crescendoh, was exquisite! The long awaited event was Friday night at Gothic Moon Productions in Orange, CA.

My evening began with dinner at Cafe Tu Tu Tango in the City Block. Cafe Tu Tu Tango is an interesting, artsy restaurant complete with an old pirate, sitting at an easel, painting an abstract with acrylics, and a girl walking around creating balloon art.

Jenny Doh sharing a moment with Suzi Blu and Gigi. Suzi was a guest speaker and shared her story of how art not only saved her from personal despair, but then helped her create a wonderful life. A life that she loves.

Suzi, Gigi and me.

Christine, Suzi, Elena and me.

The artists came out from all over to support and enjoy this amazing party. The room was packed with wonderful people who love and enjoy each other. Food and drinks were flowing. I wish I had known there would be such good food.

The Make and Take was a chipboard pendant made with products from Melody Ross' new line.

Melody was another guest speaker. She owns the wonderful Brave Girls Camp. She shared her story of how instrumental art was in her life, of having everything to having nothing and in that process found everything. Art Saves!

I had the pleasure of introducing some of my artsy friends to Shannon who has been an awesome friend since high school. She loves to people watch and this was a fun event for doing just that.

Check out the Crescendoh website for more pics and Suzi Blu's site for a video.

Mermaids and Other Wonders

2010-05-16T13:46:00.000-07:00

My most favorite thing to do these days is to draw Suzi Blu faces. I love Suzi and I love that she taught me how to draw a face that I really like, which I have never in my life been able to do. Recently, Suzi held two classes at Stamping Details in Poway. As soon as I heard about them, I signed up for both of them. On Saturday we made mermaid pictures. I love how she turned out. I think she is so adorable and I'm really proud of her. My friend Sally also took the class and we had a great time creating together with 20 other ladies who were having just as much fun with Suzi. Check out Sally's blog. She took a bunch of pictures of the students with their art.

On Sunday, Suzi taught a journal class using a board book. I'm not sharing pics yet because it's not finished. I'm not sure if it will ever be finished. I keep adding stuff to it. It's so fun and colorful.

I also did an online ATC swap. I love ATC's and this was a little different for me. It had to be strictly from a magazine. So that's what I did. The only thing I added that was not from a magazine was some gesso and some encaustic wax.

Life is busy these days. I have a new child in the house now and he's 80 years old. Ha Ha. I love my dad-in-law very much, but we were so accustomed to just being us...just the two of us. Now we have a very old man living with us who can only see shapes and can't hear unless we scream in his face. Life changes on a dime and that's for sure. He is so sweet though that I actually feel blessed by him. He talks out loud to himself when he's busy in the yard or doing dishes. It's a gentle calming sound. The best thing is he prays out loud at night when he and his little dog, Barkley, (appropriately named) go to bed. I love his prayers. He asks God to bless us and keep us safe. Then he tells Barkley how much he loves him. It's so cute.

GOOD NEWS: Those of you who remember all the stuff I went through last year with my mother in Northern California might also remember that she had a terrible, crazy neighbor who seriously harassed them on a daily basis. You might be interested to know that the DA has issued a warrant for his arrest. Yey! This is separate from the Order to Show Cause (that he violated the restraining order), which we filed against him. I will share more after we go to court in June. Keep your fingers crossed that this whack job gets what he deserves.

2010-04-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

"City Girl" by Missy Trent

"Belinda" by Kat Baker

Here's a couple of artsy things I have completed. I found this beautiful purple picture entitled "City Girl" in the Somerset Studio January/February magazine. I immediately fell in love with it...maybe because I love purple so much. It makes my eyes happy. City Girl was created by Missy Trent. I found her website and once again fell in love with her style. I decided to do my own version of Missy's painting. I really like her. I decided to call her "Belinda". Good name for a City Girl.

"Reminisce"

This is a collage that began in Chris Cozen's class. Chris and my friend, Nina helped me with the layout a bit and I think she turned out great. The picture of the old women and the look on her face of retrospect is what really inspired me. I called it "Reminisce". The clock and the map represents the time and travel of her life. I sealed it with clear and white encaustic wax.

These other two pictures are my very first attempt at watercolor. I'm taking a watercolor class and I'm just kind of struggling my way through it. I don't think watercolor is my medium of choice, but I spent money on all the paints, etc., so I think I'll spend some more time on it. I am learning how to mix colors and and how much different watercolors react on the paper as opposed to acrylics. It truly is a whole new world. Our teacher is teaching us by doing actual scenes. I think I'll experiment on my own by just adding color to the paper and make backgrounds. Anyway, I'm not inspired to name these pics. I'll call them "Elephants" and "Barn". Ha Ha! That works.

At Play...

2010-03-22T22:55:00.000-07:00

Learned a new way to make chunky jewelry. What a fun time I had at Elena's house with Miss Vicky. Vicky taught us how to make this awesome necklace. There were five of us, including Sheila and Pam, and every piece was completely different and beautiful. I loved them all. I've already scoured my stash for some cool chunky beads, buttons and trinkets to add to my next chunky necklace. If you ever get an opportunity to learn from Miss Vicky, take it...she's very talented and very fun.

Life has been so busy at my house, with my father-in-law moving into my small home and my hubby having major surgery on his right foot. My days are all about these two men. I love them and am happy that it's me taking care of them, but I also get on my pity pot sometimes just because my time is not my own anymore. It's hard to make plans. But...there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Dave should be driving in another three weeks. At that point, I have to make arrangements to go back up to my parents house in No. CA to testify at a trial against her crazy neighbor who continues to harass them. Then, maybe then I can go back to doing what I want to do...

Wait! What an epiphany! It's funny, as I wrote that last sentence, I realized that I am doing what I want to do. If I didn't want to take dad to his doctor appointments, or Dave to his doctor appointments, or go to the store to get dad new t-shirts and hankies, I wouldn't. I guess I am living the life I want to live. I just want to play more often. Playing seems to be very important to me these days. It's a childhood thing I think.

Moving dad into our home is truly the right thing to do and day by day, we are adapting. He is a pleasant, sweet, addition to our household. He's found the garden and it's Spring! Yey! Even though he can't see or hear, he manages to tinker around the yard for hours at a time. I'm thrilled that he's found something to do that he really enjoys. He also like to do the dishes! Yippee!

Speaking of fun, on Sunday, I went to the Emerald City Artist Pavilion at the Royalty Over the Rainbow Retreat. This was a wonderful 2-day, scrapbooking, charity event sponsored by Scrapbook Royalty. The money raised will be given to The Cancer coping Center and the Boys and Girls Club.

The Artist Pavilion was a treasure trove of art items created and donated by local artists such as, Alisa Burke, Suzi Blu, Cheryl Waters and Miss Vicky to name a few. I purchased this beautiful Suzi Blu painting. Suzi is a friend, a wonderful artist and teacher. Check out her blog and school. I love her work and am delighted to have this piece in my craft room. It's taking center stage right now...reminding me to "PLAY" whenever I can. Everything can feel like playing...when I remember to have fun at everything I do.

Become a Charter Member of Club Royalty

2010-03-13T23:04:00.000-08:00

Launching Club Royalty!*

April 1st, 2010
Become a Charter Member now for $20 and receive a
special Club Royalty Couture T-shirt as a bonus!

Go to Scrapbook Royalty to Register:

It’s all about Charity, Crafting and Sharing and how we can use our love of Creativity to tie them all together!

What is Club Royalty?
This is a club just for Charitable Crafters! And you get to choose how involved you want to be.
Here is how it works:

Charity
Each 3 month cycle we will give you 3 Charitable Acts to do- one each month. The tasks will vary and can be something like:
Taking blankets to a homeless shelter.
Making handmade cards for the troops overseas.
Taking flowers to a nursing home to cheer up their lobby.

Crafting
You can stop there and feel great about giving of yourself once a month or take photos or journal about your experience then create something to document your charitable act.

It can be:
A Scrapbook Page, Quilt, Video, Collage, Painting, Book, Doll,
The Sky's the Limit!

Sharing
Creating is so therapeutic and for some people, it is just for them but if you want to share you can upload a photo of your creation to our gallery and each cycle we will have lots of special gifts to giveaway from the amazing manufacturers, artists, and scrapbook stores that support Scrapbook Royalty! We will randomly choose as many winners as we can!

There will be lots of other perks.
We will have special manufacturer discounts just for members.
Special video tutorials from amazing artists sharing their charitable acts and their creations.
An online forum on the SBR website just for Club Royalty members to connect, share their stories and encourage each other’s volunteer efforts. We will have special bonuses throughout the year. This club is bound to grow and you know we will keep adding more perks as it does!

The cost to join is just a small $20 donation per cycle.
There is no commitment, there are no requirements.
You can do as little or as much as you want.
If you just want to donate $20 per cycle,
we are grateful for that too!
It’s all about Charity, Crafting, Sharing and how we can use our love of Creativity to tie them all together!

Become a Charter Member and receive a free Club Royalty T-shirt CBY4SBR (Created by Yudu for Scrapbook Royalty!) with a beautiful logo created by Rhonna Ferrar from House of 3.
*Article taken from SBR Newsletter.

Growth is Painful --

2010-03-08T21:21:00.000-08:00

Is that what is happening? Am I going through a growth spurt? Perhaps I have lived my life for this moment. I feel like I'm trapped on a roller coaster and life is taking me for a ride that I am not necessarily enjoying, but feel compelled to endure. There seems to be no other option. By staying on the roller coaster, other people's lives will be better and maybe that's the right thing to do. I don't want to complain, but I don't think I'm living the life that I wanted to live. All I can do is assume that God has other plans for me and go with it and perhaps learn to be happy with it.

I have created a couple of art pieces and taken a couple of classes in the past couple of months. That is why I started a blog...to write about those things. I want to share pictures with you and happy thoughts.

When I sit down to say something to you, the only things I can think about are the things that I'm fretting over...and I know you don't want to hear about that...and I don't want to use your time in that way.

I pray for the days that I can spend time writing about the fun things I'm doing and the creations I'm making and the wonderful people in my life. Then I will share...

World's Largest Crop

2010-01-15T21:37:00.000-08:00

WooHoo, we are so excited! Scrapbook Royalty is doing it again. Scrapbook Royalty and the Craft & Hobby Association (CHA) announces its attempt to set a world record on Jan. 23, 2010, during the CHA Craft SuperShow at the Anaheim Convention Center in California. CHA, in partnership with Scrapbook Royalty, will host the World’s Largest Crop event to raise money for the Kids In Need Foundation (KINF), which provides school supplies to students in need across the country. The World’s Largest Crop aims to bring together nearly 700 scrapbook enthusiasts to raise awareness of and donations for KINF.

If you are near Anaheim on Jan. 23, you don't want to miss this exciting event. Go to the website and purchase your tickets so you can be part of the World’s Largest Crop. We have arranged celebrity appearances, product giveaways, door prizes and a charity raffle benefiting KINF. Participants will have the opportunity to “crop” with their favorite crafting celebrities and create one-of-a-kind scrapbook projects. Celebrity scrapbookers who will attend the event include Heidi Swapp, Heidi Grace, Claudine Helmuth and many others, along with product donations from Provocraft, Canon, Wacom, Maya Road, Art Glitter, Flowersoft, Sakura and more.

Tribute to Marilyn

2010-01-13T10:28:00.000-08:00

I had a chance to do a little art piece at Jackie's yesterday. We were not scheduled to have an art meetup this month, but Jackie's been working on her art studio and wanted a little advice. The studio looks awesome. She has a huge collection of Ephemera and she has managed to get it organized and easier to find. Everything has a home! June and I helped her with a little rearranging of furniture and still had some time for the business of art.

I made this little tribute to Marilyn all from Jackie's stash. I liked Marilyn and thought she died much too early in her life. She was in the middle of life's lessons and never had the chance to reap the benefits of learning the lessons.

The base of the piece is a tile sample. I added paper and some and embellies and of course a picture of Marilyn. I used my Copics markers to make her black and white feather boa, pink. Added the key just because I liked it. Ha Ha. Don't you just love art. It's so freeing! Thanks Jackie for a fun art time.

New Glimmer Glaze and Eduction Blog

2010-01-04T21:44:00.000-08:00

New education blog from Tattered Angels. Go there now! Check out the new product. I can't wait to get my hands on the new Glimmer Glaze! Love any thing glimmer, but glaze and glimmer, let me at it!

Check out the list of ladies on the education team. They are going to have tips and techniques for us every other day. What a fun way to learn about these new products.

2010-01-03T11:29:00.000-08:00

I had a blog post that I hadn't published because I kept adding to it. It was my previous post that encompassed the whole month of December simply because I didn't blog all month. December is over and I'm still trying to share about what I didn't share about at the time. It's crazy! Since I write this blog as more of an art journey for myself, or a bit of a diary if you will...I feel like I need to add every little detail of my art life or I might forget it happened. Again, it's crazy. Time to move on to 2010.

Here's what I'm into right now. My friend Nina introduced me to Christine Kane's blog and the idea of using one word as a way of setting intention for a whole year. This intrigued me because I have been struggling with my New Year's resolution. I don't have one! Every year, I want to get healthy and by that I mean lose weight, get off cholesterol meds, take better care of myself, have a physical, bla bla bla! Sometimes I'm successful and often it only lasts until February. This year, I don't even seem to care. I absolutely refuse to set myself up for disappointment, hence I'll do nothing! Makes sense right...not!

I like the idea of a word to focus on. For example if I want to stay on the same path, my word could be HEALTH. I don't know yet. Maybe I'll have two words...

I recommend Christine's blog if this is something you'd like to try. She has articles from other bloggers that describe their word of the year and why. She also has a helpful tool to figure out what your word is. I'm going to go use it right now.

A Month At A Glance

2009-12-31T08:59:00.000-08:00

Happy!

Suzi, Sally & Gigi with some pretty angels

Elena with her gift

Gigi wanting some of Suzi's gift

Lots of fun events for me this month. Thought I'd get them on the blog before the end of the year. Book Club was a blast! Suzi Blu and Gigi were our guests. She shared her art and a little bit about herself with us. We all had lots of questions. Some of us, including me immediately signed up for her online Angel class. We are learning how to make pretty angels.

Dee's beautiful quilted letters

Brenda's gorgeous embellished letters

Presents!

We had a letter exchange and the ladies once again stepped up to the plate with some beautiful pieces. Gorgeous letters for your scrapbook page or mixed media piece. Of course, being December, we had a gift exchange that was a hoot. There were a couple of items, including a Suzi Blu print, that everyone kept stealing. No, I didn't get it. I tried though!

Hosted a birthday party for Elena at the Beach House in Solana Beach. It was the wettest, coldest day of the year and yet many ventured out to honor Elena. She received some amazing gifts and I think we all had a wonderful time. The Beach House sits right on the sand at the ocean. Due to the storm, the ocean was turbulent with white caps as far as the eye could see.

Jackie organized a fun trip to walk through and view the Christmas decorations in some of the homes in Fairbanks Ranch. It was a fundraiser for MHS Recovery Center in Oceanside. We went through seven homes and then ended up Jackie's sister's home, which was by far the most beautiful on the tour. There were about eight of us and I think each of us had a different favorite house. Jackie pre-instructed us to bring a couple of gifts that wanted to wrap. She brought all her vintage wrapping paper and decorations. We enjoyed lunch and wrapped beautiful presents to give to our family. It was a unique and fun way to spend the day with girlfriends in a beautiful atmosphere.

Hosted an ATC swap on Facebook. I'm new to ATC's, and to hosting so it was a learning experience. Everyone I met in the swap was talented and nice and I think I'll do it again one day in the future. The ATC's are fun to collect and I'm looking for a local ATC group to join.

I took a PMC class from Deborah Trusdell at Stamping Details. I have been intrigued with this art for years and after meeting Deborah and talking about it, it felt like it sort of fell into my lap and said, "It's time!" I am so delighted with what I learned. I left the class feeling like I can make silver jewelry on my own any time I want. That's pretty cool! I made a pair of earrings and a pendant. My next venture will be some small charms, which is an idea I am stealing from one of the ladies in my class. The small charms have words or symbols on them and are cute to add to an art piece.

Spent a couple of days with my beading friends and made some necklaces. Lauren taught me a new technique with micro crimp beads and chain. Also, made a funky little beaded heart with a wire wrapping technique.

And of course, spent a couple of days with my beloved art group at Sally's. Finished my Suzi Blu painting. I don't think Suzi would think I worked long enough on her but, I really wanted to start a pretty girl and learn the processes from beginning to end, which I did. I must admit Suzi played with her a little bit too. I think she is beautiful in a sort of non-proportionate way. I love her.

It was my anniversary this month so my hubby and I spent three days totally enmeshed with each other. It was so fun and sweet and intimate and loving and fun!!! I am the luckiest girl in the world to have such an awesome man.

Christmas was sort of quiet this year. We had a couple of gatherings at , the house with family. Actually, Christmas day, we had grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup with Dave's parents. We had a bigger celebration with our kids, grandkids and extended family. I catered Christmas dinner with Bucca de Pepbo this year. We had the big turkey dinner at Thanksgiving. I wanted something different for Christmas and we didn't want to cook! It wasn't worth it. The food was good but not worth the money. Live and learn. Went to my Sister's on Christmas day. Man, did she have all the trimmings. It was good too! All in all, Christmas was about family and friends, easy peasy and very enjoyable.

New goal for the year is to blog more than once a month.

It Was An Artful Day!

2009-12-10T21:08:00.000-08:00

Today was one of those wonderful days that I love so much. Spent the day at Sally's with some of the girls. It was a small group today, just five of us, which is nice because it's just one conversation as opposed to several. Don't get me wrong, I love it when there's more of us, but I find that I want to be part of all of the conversations at one time and then I get confused. Anyway, we all created something different today. Sally was drawing her beautiful faces and waxing her paintings, Nina was working with alcohol inks and making gorgeous Christmas Cards. Suzi was painting and drawing and working with Copics in her new scrap/journal/photo book. Diane was cutting out pictures for a collage book. I was coloring, painting and waxing my first pretty Suzi Blu inspired girl. I love her. She's so pretty! I can't wait to learn more.

If you would like to learn more about how to make pretty girls go to world renowned artist Suzi Blu's Les Petit Academy and take a class. You get way more than just an art class. She is very hands on. It's like being taught one on one. The videos are yours to keep and you can watch them over and over.

Along with the art, we enjoyed scones and coffee for breakfast and yummy turkey soup and french bread for lunch. The colored pencils, paints, Copics, inks, papers, magazines, wax, irons, and stars were all over the place, and we were eating, creating, and yakking up a storm as girls do. It was a joyful time for me. I think my friends were pretty happy too. Maybe that's what makes it so great. We love to do what we do and we love to do it together! Being part of this artful group of ladies is a sincere blessing in my life. I'm just so darned happy!!!

3-DAY CROP

2009-11-23T09:43:00.000-08:00

Crop room and kitchen before the guests arrived.

I was so spoiled and pampered this past weekend that I fear nothing will ever live up to the experience. The standards were set so high that many of us pondered and wondered if we'll ever experience an event as exceptional. I've been sitting here trying to put into words the delight of the 3-Day Crop. Words that keep coming into my mind are:

Awesome, Incredible Hostesses, Sheila and Elena.

Beautiful, Charming Scrap Retreat House in French Valley.

Wonderful, Giving Women, Elena, Cheryl, Jean, Shanna, Wendy, Terri, Carmena, Liz, Sheila, Bobbie, Eva.

Super Talented Teachers, Donna Salazar, Stephanie Ackerman, Elena Etcheverry, Cheryl.

Adorable Fairy, Tory.

Generous, Plethora of Presents all weekend long.

Scrumptious Food all weekend long.

Roller Coaster Feelings from sheer delight and happiness, to an emotional well of tears, to giddy thrill, back to being a ball bag again. And, then finally, sheer exhaustion from the awe of it all. My emotions ran the gambit over the entire weekend!

Wendy working into the wee hours.

The 3-Day Crop started Friday morning. We walked through the door and didn't have to worry about a thing. Everything was taken care of. Every whim was met. All we needed to do was set up our scrapbooking stuff and get started. If you wanted a drink or some food, Bobbie was there. If you wanted a tool, someone would get it and teach you how to use it. There were stamps and inks, computers and printers, Cricket, Slice, Big Shot, Papers, Flowers, Ribbons, and if it wasn't there, we could simply yell out, "Does anyone have a gold metallic pen?" and everyone would start looking for one to share.

Food was excellent and endless! For breakfast, we had fresh coffee, bacon and eggs made to order, cereal, fruit, pastries and more. For lunch, we had grilled gourmet cheese and ham sandwiches, yummy lima bean soup (I know, I don't like lima beans either, but this soup made by Jean, was extraordinary!), chips and salsa, veggies and more. For hors d oeuvres, we had spicy chicken wings, fresh vegetables, chips, crackers and homemade dips, not to mention wine and cocktails. For dinner, we had 4 different salads, chicken and spaghetti, pot roast and mashed potatoes, broccoli and more. Oh, did I mention midnight snacks...uh huh, we had pizza! And, for desserts, we had cupcakes, ice cream sundaes, all the chocolate candy imaginable, cheese cake and so much more. It was truly decadent!

Shanna and Kat

Crafting was a blast! Prior to the event, we each made a swap gift. We picked names and that was who we gave our gift to. Shanna received my gift, which was a Breast Cancer Awareness, Encaustic Wax Collage. She said she was thrilled to receive it, which of course, made me ecstatic! I received a set of Starbuck's ceramic teacups from Carmena and Tory

. My word was Courage!

Once we arrived, we worked on our own scrapbooks, but we also had projects. Once of those projects was to draw a word from a hat and then with that word, create a Breast Cancer Awareness Canvas. Everyone's word was different and each canvas was unique and beautiful.

Friday night Cheryl taught us how to make paper flowers. One little, cut-out, scalloped flower turned into a beautiful rose. I used Glimmer Mist on mine and it was gorgeous. I'll be making these flowers compulsively for days to come, I'm sure.

Donna Salazar arrived on Saturday night and taught us how to make her signature flowers with vintage dictionary pages, tissue paper and Smooch. The color combinations were fantastic. The flowers were made the same way, but each one was different and unique to the artist. I'm on the search for a round scallop punch.

Stephanie Ackerman also came Saturday armed with a kit for each of us. She taught us her signature doodling. That was so much fun and interesting. My doodling has taken on a whole new personality. In fact, I need to take time out to practice my doodling.

Saturday night, Carol, our wonderful masseuse set up shop in the giant upstairs master bedroom. The lights were low, the music was low and the massage was to die for. Personally, the muscles in my neck felt like huge rocks. A little Bag Balm and Carol's deep healing touch was just what was in order. We each signed up for a little peace of her heaven. It was just in time for a second wind to go back to crafting and scrapping.

Sunday, Elena Etcheverry of Scrapbook Royalty, taught us how to make her signature flower with fabrics and flame. Yes, you heard right...this flower requires a candle flame to help frame it's unique look. I've always loved chiffon and now I have a reason to use it. We were all oohing and awing over the fabrics and buttons and final creations. Wait till Prima sees this flower!

One of the ladies from Susan G. Komen came and talked to us about the recent, disturbing media reports that women don't have to do self-exam or mammograms. She said that has been corrected and that she doesn't think the insurance companies will stop paying for breast exam procedures. I was happy to hear how fast they were able to right this wrong!

Out of the original 12 ladies that stayed all weekend, we had 4 Breast Cancer Survivors! Each lady spoke a little bit and we were not only tearful, but so inspired by their strength and courage. Each one of them said, "self-exam" is what saved their lives. They were adamant about the importance of women doing their own exams even if they get regular mammograms.

Kat and her dolly Hope

Kat and one of many Fairy Flybys

Did I mention PRESENTS and FAIRY FLYBYS. They never stopped coming. Every time we turned around there was a new present. I went home with literally twice as much as I came with. Our first and exciting present was Hope, the most adorable doll handmade by Sheila. We received personalized pillow cases and a fabric bag of bath necessities. We had Tory, our own personal Fairy handing out scrapbooking papers, embellishments, boxes, flowers, kits, clips, totes, Susan G. Komen glass ornaments, the list goes on and on.

We had a T-Shirt contest and Terri won with her flower ta ta's. Our Queen of Philanthropy was Shanna who raised the most money and as it turned out, in the least amount of time. We took group pictures. Eva counted the Cards for Troops the final count was over 1,200 cards.

The cherry on top of this event goes to Bobbie and Eva who tirelessly took care of our every need. They wouldn't allow us to do anything for ourselves. Bobbie kept the food coming, the tea kettle hot and the kitchen in constant order. Eva counted cards, sprayed adhesive, even cutout letters on the Cricket for one of my projects.

Personally, I can't thank Sheila enough for her unbelievable attention to detail and her hard work. She has been working tirelessly on this project for absolutely months. Liz, Sheila's mother said, "Sheila would work for eight hours during the day, come home and take a nap and then begin her second job working on the 3-Day Crop for eight hours at nighttime." This was definitely her baby and she did it justice and more. It was the details that made this event special and her ability to keep the party flowing. She has a true gift for knowing just what a crafting girl wants and needs and she did the amazing work to make it happen.

Elena on the phone troubleshooting a computer problem.

Of course, the Princess of the weekend was Elena. She was our computer and printer geek, our photographer and naturally all questions were answered immediately or she was on the phone getting the answer. None of this would have happened for me personally if it hadn't been for my friend Elena. She absolutely took me under her wing and is the reason I was able to have this experience. Her philanthropic skills are unmatched and I truly admire her. She definitely goes the extra mile to make the right stuff happen! She's a natural teacher and artist and I love being with her.

Last but not least, the twelve 3-Day Croppers and the twelve 1-Day Croppers raised 12,000 for Susan G. Komen, For the Cure, Inland Empire. That exceeds the $7,000 goal by almost double. Three quarters of this money will stay in the Inland Empire area, which is wonderful news.

I have more pics that I will add later.

Johnny Depp - Sexiest Man Alive

2009-11-18T10:24:00.001-08:00

People Magazine's choice for a 2nd year. Ok, so, I know this is probably violating some sort of copyright law and if it is, I'm so sorry, but...

Can I just say that this guy...

hmmmm...

I don't know what it is, but he's pretty dang hot!

Carol Murphy's Vintage Grunge Holiday Encaustic Class

2009-11-16T22:56:00.000-08:00

These are the same picture. Different camera lighting.

This past weekend, again, I was very lucky to get into Carol Murphy's Vintage Grunge Holiday Encaustic class at Stamping Details. This was true Encaustic wax and completely new to me. What fun we had! Unfortunately my camera had no batteries in it so I don't have pictures of the class or of Carol. I did take a picture of my finished product. I really like it. I think I may have had a much heavier hand with color than I was suppose to, but I like it that way. Carol has a slide show on her website of some of her Encaustic creations. They are gorgeous! I loved learning this process. I want to do some ATC's using the wax.

Chris Cozen's Faux Encaustic Class

2009-11-16T21:56:00.000-08:00

Chris spreading the Faux Encaustic on the picture.

So many great classes to choose from lately. On Halloween day, I was very lucky to get a seat in Chris Cozen's Faux Encaustic class at Stamping Details. We worked with the fabulous Golden products and as you know, it's a language in itself. Needless to say, when Chris was giving the formulas, I struggled to follow along. I tried to write them down, but didn't do so well, so gave up and just started slathering the paints on my canvas. Fortunately Nina wrote down the formulas and shared. Nina is so much more art savy than I and was a life saver for me in this class.

Nina and her beautiful creations.

We used soft gel medium to adhere collage images to the canvas. After the images were dry, we used a palette knife to add two colors of Golden Fluid Acrylic paint to the canvas. After that dried, we selected a third accent color and painted it on a rubber thing, which was then pressed onto the canvas. The checkerboard looking thing is used under carpet padding. I believe it can be purchased by the yard.

These are two of my creations...still very wet.

Chris gave us a few different formula's, including a base of acrylic ground for pastel or soft gel medium. The formula we decided to use dried the fastest, consisting of less than 1/4 cup Golden Fluid Matt Medium for each 8"x8" canvas, with a drop of Quinacridone/Nickel Azo Gold. Another formula substituted the gold for 3 drops of Interference blue and 2 drops of Iridescent gold to add a sheen to the finished look. You spread the mixture all over the canvas. It can be a finished piece at that point, or you can continue to add more layers of paint, stamping, collage, etc.

Jackie's Birthday Party

2009-11-10T14:12:00.000-08:00

I bet the blogs are a buzzin' today! It was a very special day! It was Jackie's Birthday!

The girls, Jackie and her sister, Patti, along with June, Jeannie, Maryam, Bonnie, Elena, Bet, Sally and Miss Vicky had a blast at Jackie's Birthday Party Thrift Store Scavenger Hunt! We all met at the Beach Grass Cafe in Poway, and then with our pens and clues in hand, took off to hunt through the local thrift stores. The objective was to find little coin envelopes or pieces of paper or pictures of Jackie that were hidden among the thrift store merchandise. Each was worth a certain amount of points. We had clues to help us, such as Bearly There, Sock Hop, See Dick and Jane, Batter Up, Pink Peddle Pushers, etc. It was very interesting, competitive and fun! However, I must admit, this brain struggled a bit. I struggled with wanting to find the points and wanting to shop. I found it difficult to do both at the same time.

There were five winners, including yours truly! Yey! I won a beautiful, sort of Tuscan looking dipping set. Miss Vicky was the big winner with a box full of vintage jewelry. Sally came in second, June was third, and Elena took fifth place.

We definitely developed quite an appetite from all our hard work. Thankfully, the food was great and we spent some quality time gabbing. It was one of the most entertaining birthday party's I've had the pleasure of enjoying.

Next stop was Stamping Details for a quick visit and the purchase of a couple of "very necessary items". Ha! That's a joke! I need more necessary items like I need... There was a cute dress store next door and Elena found some "necessary items". And, then in another store, Sally and Vicky and I found a desert. What more can you ask for...everyone was happy! Super fun day with nice ladies!

Contest

2009-11-09T22:32:00.000-08:00

Check out the new post on the Where Women Create blog. They are celebrating their anniversary by having a contest. If you haven't read this magazine, you are in for a treat. I scour it cover to cover. It's truly delicious!

Another Great Saturday with my Sister

2009-11-08T20:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was all about fun with my sister and making cards. We went to a Stack and Stamp in Oceanside and made ten awesome Christmas cards. While we were in the area, decided to go to the Forum. Went to Casa de Bandini for an outstanding mexican breakfast. They have the best food and patio seating! While we were at the Forum, stopped by the Paper Source and guess what...they were doing Christmas card make and takes. Made two cards and four place tags. Lots of fun! We were so inspired, we went home and made four more Christmas Cards with lots of embossing. The best part was being with my sister. We really have a lot of fun together. We start laughing about something and can't stop. It's crazy fun!

My new favorite paper line is Graphic 45. Sooo cute! Can't wait to get some.

CHA Craft Super Show

2009-10-11T14:14:00.000-07:00

Scrapbook Royalty is hosting the WORLD'S LARGEST CROP at CHA in Anaheim. The date is January 23rd.

More to come on this exciting announcement.

In Loving Memory

2009-10-10T08:03:00.000-07:00

D's stepmom lost her battle with pain last night. She has been in different types of pain for many years. After a back surgery and an intestinal surgery, she took a turn for the worse and basically decided that she didn't want to do it anymore. She asked to go to Hospice about three weeks ago and the doctors granted her wish. She's finally out of pain. God rest her soul.

What a Great Birthday!

2009-07-10T16:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had an awesome birthday. MB and Lauren took me to lunch at Buster's in Seaport Village. We had a delicious lunch and then shared in a birthday Creme Brulee that was sooo yummy. It was the most beautiful day down on the embarcadero. Walked around a bit and took a couple of pictures. MB gave me a plate that has three beautiful, large, cone-shaped candles atop. She also made me a gorgeous handmade beaded potpourri pillow, but I can't have it yet because it's not quite finished. I'll be buggin' her for that because it's so pretty that I want it now. Lauren gave me a super cool kitty bed for Parker and Kirby. I've been wanting one like this for awhile...waiting for them to go on sale somewhere. Well, wait no more!

Last night was Book Club and Elena surprised me with a handmade present, dinner and a Starbucks. My present was a Kat doll that she made. She said, "I tried to put her hair up and make it messy like yours"...ha ha. She has glitter glass on her blouse, lots of bling, wings, and the sweetest face...just like mine...hee hee. The little word charms say "Kat Artista". I love her! She's the best present ever. Sandy and Allyson joined us for dinner, which was outside under the grass hut trees at Rubios. It was a pleasant evening for dinner outside, the food was yummy and the company was delightful.

Book Club was tons of fun as always. We started a new book, which is a handwriting book. The challenge is to bring something we made that includes journaling. This is a good thing for me because I typically type everything and seldom use my own handwriting...so it's truly a challenge for me. Our kit this month included the Tim Holts Tiny Attacher, which is a stapler that makes .25'' staples. The staples are cute if you want them to show, but they are also so small that you could hide them under a flower or button. We also got a mechanical pencil, which is something I use all the time, plus it's purple, so I love it, and a great Hi-polymer eraser. Oh, and we got a tent style nametag that we are suppose to journal our name on...good thing we have an eraser.

Jennifer made cupcakes and Lisa brought cupcakes so Brenda and I shared a birthday wish. It was fun that we had our birthday on the same day and it just happened to be Book Club day. Bonnie gave me a darling handmade Washie that she knitted herself. It's pink with intricate knitting detail. I was so surprised! Everyone wished me Happy Birthday all night. I felt so special.

Good Luck to Christine

2009-07-07T00:33:00.000-07:00

My friend, Christine has made it into the Top 20 for the Paper Crafts Gallery Idol contest! You can see her card for the first round and read about details for voting here: http://creativejourney.typepad.com/creative_journey/2009/07/together-forever-paper-crafts-gallery-idol-rak-winner.html

Also, scroll down to the bottom of the blog post for a chance to win a free scrapbooking kit!
Christine and her husband own the Scrap Retreat House, which is a treat. Check it out.

Guinness Recording The World's Largest Crop at CHA

2009-06-25T11:12:00.000-07:00

The Craft and Hobby Association, CHA is usually for retailers and wholesalers only. It is a trade show and not open to the general public... but this year they are hosting a Craft Super Show for everyone to enjoy! If you are any where near Orlando, Florida or can be there July 31 or August 1st, this is something you do not want to miss! Here is the website: http://www.craftsupershow.com/eweb/StartPage.aspx

Tickets are $10 for one day and $14 for both. There is a coupon code super08 that you can use to get $5 off. This is a very fun thing to do this summer and super affordable!

Scrapbook Royalty is hosting the World's Largest Crop Attempt! Friday July 31st from 5-11:00 pm. We will be giving away amazing goody bags, there will be fabulous make and takes, and we're having a raffle to raise money for the Leeza Gibbons Memory Foundation.

The cost of the crop is $30 and you will definitely be getting more than $30 worth of goodies! If you are flying in and don't want to bring your cropping supplies, there will be plenty to do and it is still worth it to come! Be a part of Scrapbooking History!!! Guinness will be there to verify our total and hopefully we will make it a World Record!

Can't wait! Hope to see you there!

Paper Source

2009-06-19T16:41:00.000-07:00

Paper Source in Carlsbad invited Elena, founder of Scrapbook Royalty, and some of her friends to a party at the store. I was lucky to be on the invite list. Aubrey and Jill gave us the royal treatment with treats and a grand tour of the store, as well as a couple of cool make and takes. Lucky Elena was crowned Queen for the Day and given a lovely gift. It was lots of fun. Paper Source is in the Forum shopping center off of Leucadia Blvd. Walking around the center is a treat in itself. It's really nice. I recommend both the store and the center.

Ties That Bind

2009-06-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

Wow! Do you want to be part of something extraordinary? You won't want to miss the Ties That Bind Art Doll that is being auctioned through Scrapbook Royalty for Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. This incredibly special "art doll" is made with ties and is covered with handmade charms that were created by more than 100 different artists. You can learn more by going to Ties That Bind. To show your support for Cancer Research and for an opportunity to win this unbelievable creation, head over to the website right now and purchase raffle tickets. 100% of your money will go to OCRF.

A Night With Jenni Bolin and Friends

2009-06-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

LtoR: Kat, Jenni, Sally, Diane, Elena, Brook

I went to a Jenni Bowlin class at Paper Tales last night with Elena, Brook, Sally and Diane. It was a night of firsts... My first class with Jenni, my first meeting with Elena's friend, Brook, and my first time at Paper Tales in Point Loma.
Jenni and her husband, Jared are a warm, lovely, down-to-earth couple who had the ability to immediately make you feel like you are their new best friends. There were 30-40 women signed up for Jenni's class, which I think made them feel welcomed to San Diego. I loved the mini album that we created. It is a 4x4 mini and the theme is "Simply the Best." I won a raffle prize, which was a Jenni Bolin kit.
Brook is great and together with Elena, they are a hoot. Brook is adamant that she is not a scrapbooker, but I think there's a little creative soul lingering around in Brook-land whether she believes it or not. Loved meeting her and look forward to spending more scrappy time with her.
What can I say about Paper Tales...it's ADORABLE! Lots of cute little embellies everywhere. Thanks Paper Tales for a fun evening.

Paper Dolls

2009-06-12T00:13:00.001-07:00

We made paper dolls at our Art Meetup at Jackie B's this week. The last time I made paper dolls, I think I was eight. It's not like riding a bike. It didn't come back to me naturally. In the end, my doll was all paper. I felt compelled to add other embellishments. I noticed that Sally and Bets made an effort to stick to theme of "paper" dolls. I'm going to try again and see if I can grasp it a little better, but in the meantime, here are some pictures of the cute dolls we made.

Book Club is a Hoot!

2009-06-05T10:03:00.000-07:00

Some of the fabulous ladies at Book Club

Lorene and me muggin' for the camera

Have I mentioned that I love Book Club at the Pink Pineapple. Last night our guest speaker was Lorene Yost, an independent sales person for many scrapbooking lines. She demonstrated the Glue Glider, which was our make and take for the evening. She is also an author and has published several articles in magazines. She shared some of her zany experiences and suggested that if we want to write a book...do it and don't give up! I love her spirit and enjoyed her stories.

Elena showing Lisa's embellished toaster.

Christine's wall Collage.

Is this the cutest, pink, fairy doll...thanks Sally.

I feel completely honored!

My favorite part of the evening is everyone sharing what they have created. I absolutely loved the fairy dolls that Sally and Elena's swap group made. Lisa's toaster was so incredible...who would have thought a toaster could be so fabulous. Christine from Scrap Retreat House made this wall collage that absolutely spoke to me. I want it on my wall! That's just to name a few items because I could go on and on. What a talented and lovely group of women to be associated with.

Coin Envelope Swap

Last night was also coin envelope swap night. All I can say is Woot Woot! Look at all the beautifully decorated envelopes. I don't even know what's inside yet. I'm still getting so much pleasure from the envelopes.

Check out the kit that we received from Elena, our Book Club hostess from Scrapbook Royalty. The totally cool Glue Glider was our make and take. I was so busy running around having fun that I didn't get to finish embellishing mine...add it to the list! Tied together in royalty style, is a package of ephemera that I can't wait to play with. Yey! Thanks Elena.

Black White & Craft All Over

2009-06-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

Elena, Kristie, Lisa, Yuko, Anita, Kat, Sally, Birgette, Miranda, Isabella at the Pink Pineapple

Thanks Kristie for a great make and take.

Peggy Sue Pugster isn't quite sure!

A couple of my pages.

A group of us spent Monday doing the Black White Craft All Over event, which is an event that benefits Scrapbook Royalty. The object is to go to 6 craft stores along Hwy 78 and do a 2-page layout, make and take. It's an event that will be going on throughout the month of June. Please visit Scrapbook Royalty for more information. There's still time to sign up for this very fun event either through the website or at any one of the stores. You will receive your goodie bag and the list of stores to get you started.

Our 12 ladies were the test group. We did all 6 stores in one day. For the most part, the stores were ready for us and treated us exceptionally well...like ROYALTY! Everyone was very gracious and accommodating and all six 2-page layouts were cute and fun. At each store, we received raffle tickets for awesome baskets of scrapbooking goodies.

Next, we have homework. We take our six 2-page layouts and create something with them. I'm thinking I'll do a book. First step is to add one other color of my choosing, add pictures, and then embellish, embellish, embellish. Final step is to submit our creation to the stores Each store will pick a winner and honor that person with a $50 gift certificate. I'm scared to submit, but I think I may even give this part a try. Stepping out of that old box!

Peggy Sue Pugster

2009-05-28T11:44:00.001-07:00

Yey! Peggy Sue can open her mouth!

Peggy waiting with Papa for her turn to see the Dr.

Peggy and her Dr. Jennifer De Berry at Veterinary Specialty Hospital

Awwww! Poor Peggy Sue has been very sick. She has a disease called masticatory myositis, an immune disease that affects the facial muscles used for opening and closing the mouth. She has been on meds for about 2 months now and she can finally get her mouth open enough to chew and pant, etc., but when she tries to yawn, she still can't follow through. Her little cheek bones are more pronounced because the muscles behind them have atrophied. We went in for a recheck today, had some blood work done, and we're waiting to hear if she is handling the meds ok, insofar as her liver and kidneys are concerned. She'll probably be on these meds for a long time, if not forever.

I am so grateful to the Doctors at Veterinary Specialty Hospital for correctly diagnosing Peggy's problem immediately. And, thankfully, once they determined what they thought it was, there was a blood test that verified it. Unfortunately Peggy's titer for this disease was off the charts. The good thing is that because of that, they know what and how to treat her so that she can eat and be comfortable.

Sister, I Love You

2009-05-27T13:37:00.001-07:00

Had a change of plans yesterday and ended up in my craft room all day. I was going to work on the Coin Envelopes some more. Didn't get much of that done...but I did make this little collage for my sister. That's us in the picture, when we were little kids. She's actually taller than me now. I got the idea of using the back of a canvas from one of the published artists at Somerset Memories. I painted the canvas back black and purple, used a crackle medium and then painted it off-white. I love the way it crackled. I painted the lace with a homemade alcohol ink. I made the ink by adding pigment powder to a little bit of alcohol. That was fun! The picture was old and sort of crappy so I decided to change the colors just to give it a more artsy look. I gave the collage to my sister this morning and she loved it. I love that she loved it!

Embossing the Coin Envelopes

2009-05-27T13:01:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh...had such a fun weekend with my sister. We went crazy with the embossing technique. We made cards and then I decided to work on my coin envelopes. The Book Club is doing a coin envelope swap. The point is to decorate the envelope and fill it with ephemera. Isn't that a fun idea. There are a 17 crafters who are participating. We will each embellish 17 coin envelopes and then when we do the swap, we will each get 17 different ones back. My coin envelopes turned out pretty good. Each one is a little different. I still want to add fibers and, of course fill them. I think the swap is such a fun idea...thanks to Elena with Scrapbook Royalty.

Happy Birthday Darlin'

2009-05-27T12:55:00.001-07:00

Spent some time with my girlfriend Sherry. We worked on our beading. I made this necklace and earring set for my daughter's 26th birthday. Happy birthday baby.

Art Meetup at Jackie's

2009-05-27T12:33:00.000-07:00

Now this was fun! We altered bottles. We made dolls out of them. I just love this art meetup. When we took the picture of all the dollies, Duchess didn't have her face on yet. But here she is all dolled up with her face, hair and hat...the Grand Duchess Dolly herself.

Scrapbook Royalty Book Club at the Pink Pineapple

2009-05-27T11:51:00.000-07:00

Elena, Cheryl, Jana, Jenny, Kristie

I joined Elena's Scrapbook Royalty Book Club at Pink Pineapple. I had such a good time. There are about 35 exceptionally talented ladies in the Book Club. They all showed their beautiful creations. Wow! I don't know if I measure up, but I think I will learn a lot from these ladies. Each 3-month cycle we work with a book or magazine. This cycle it is Somerset Memories and The Stamper's Sampler, which are extraordinary magazines. The pictures are incredible. Even the paper is special. A cup of tea and one of these magazines makes for a very nice moment in time.

Jana Holstein, Managing Editor of Somerset Memories, Jenny Doh, Director of Publishing of the Stampington & Company publications and Cheryl Waters, Lead Fisk-a-teer for Fiskars, were our inspirational speakers for the evening. Jana and Jenny shared their stories of finding their own creative spirits, and showed us examples of unique art that has been submitted for publication. They shared ideas and procedures of how to submit to the Stampington publications. Cheryl gave us the courage and the will to go ahead and submit our artwork. Cheryl also provided a make and take of an altered tag. I had never done tags before so I was very inspired by all the ideas she offered. All three ladies were so delightful and wonderful. I can't say how much I enjoyed the evening.

Uncle Harry

2009-05-27T10:04:00.000-07:00

My Uncle Harry's funeral was on May 4th. He was 98 years old. He was a great guy and will be missed. Here's his obit.

Hays Jr., Harry*
HAYS Jr., HARRY A. "The Last of the Savoy Players" Harry A. Hays Jr., age 98, a resident of San Diego since July 4, 1925, and a 1928 graduate of San Diego High School, died April 7, 2009, at Brighton Gardens in Carmel Valley. Mr. Hays arrived here with his parents, Harry A. Hays Sr. and Ruby Kisman Hays, to join the cast of the well-remembered and much loved Savoy Players, a local theatrical stock company. His first performance at age 15, was as Joey Shanks in "The Copperhead" followed by many hits such as "Pigs" and "Unusual Weather." Mr. Hays was the first baby in arms to be permitted aboard the "Cotton Blossom" river boat made famous by Edna Ferber in her book Show Boat. After the river boat tour, the Hays family trouped through Louisiana, Texas, and California on what was known as a tent show called "Murphy's Comedians." Harry often told the story of jumping from one town to another in his father's touring sedan with his mom and dad in the front seat, his grandmother with seven canaries in cages, and himself in the back seat, and opening the door to let "Topsy" his pony in to stand in front of his grandmother and himself! His longest stay in any one town was 56 weeks in Sacramento, where his father invested in a theater which burned down. Other than that, his early years were spent in one or two week stands, sleeping in his dad's trunk, living in hotels and rooming houses. Mr. Hays was affiliated with the Delta Sigma Fraternity, holding every office including three consecutive terms as President. He was fundamental in reviving the chapter quarterly luncheon meetings and was awarded the honor of President "ad infinitum." He was also chairman of his 50th, 60th, and 65th high school reunions, all very successful. On December 7, 1942, during World War II, Mr. Hays enlisted in the Navy serving on Guadalcanal and returning to the San Francisco area before being discharged. Since 1957, he had been associated with the steel industry. Harry is survived by his son Daniel who lives in Carmel Valley, his daughter Melissa who lives in Mendocino, his sister Mary of McKinleyville, CA, and six grandchildren. Mrs. Olive Hays, his wife of 45 years, passed away in June, 1984. Mr. Hays' ashes will be interred at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.
Published in the San Diego Union-Tribune on 4/12/2009

Art Meetup - April '09

2009-04-21T14:36:00.000-07:00

I'm disappointed that I forgot my camera today so I don't have pics of everyone's creations. But, here's mine and oh...what a fun day we had decorating switch plates at Jackie's Art Meetup. I decided to make mine into a little wall collage since I covered up all the holes to make it work as a switch plate. Already excited about next month!

Birthday Celebration in Coronado

2009-04-21T09:15:00.000-07:00

Spent the day in Coronado with my sister, niece and daughter. What a fun time. It was an absolutely beautiful day. Celebrated Taylor and Chelsea's birthdays. We had lunch outside at the Village Pizzeria. The view of the city of San Diego was spectacular. I was born in this city and I still get blown away by it's beauty. Went to the Hotel Del Coronado for a little shopping.

Cupcake Love

2009-04-21T09:07:00.000-07:00

Went with Elena, Dawn, Sandy and Patty for cupcakes at Cupcake Love in Solana Beach. What a cute store! The cupcakes are total eye candy and taste scrumptious. I had a German Chocolate, which is my favorite cake and it was the best German Chocolate cupcake I have ever eaten. They also make cupcakes to order. It's the way they are decorated that is so darling.

Also, did a little shopping at Cedros. Does it get any better than having a fun day with the girls.

Opportunity for Charity and Fun

2009-04-10T11:28:00.000-07:00

Black White and

Craft All Over 2009

SCRAPBOOKERS,

YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE THIS!

Once again, my favorite charitable organization,

Scrapbook Royalty,

is sponsoring a very unique and fun event.

June 1-30th, 2009

For $35 Registration Fee, you will get a

"License to Scrap"

and visit six wonderful stores during

the month of June.

You will be treated like Royalty as your travels

take you along the 78 freeway from

East to West...Escondido to Oceanside.

At each store you will complete a 6x6, 2-page layout,

make and take using different techniques,

all in the black and white theme.

At the end of your journey, if you choose,

create a "work of art" using your 6 make and takes and

submit them for a contest to win

$50 gift cards from each store.

You have the whole month of June to complete

your make and takes.

Plus, you won't want to miss the surprises and discounts.

For more information and registration go to:

Scrapbook Royalty.

Doesn't this sound like a blast!

March Was a Fun Filled Month

2009-04-04T10:53:00.000-07:00

March was a fun month. My sis had a birthday party and I had the opportunity to spend some time with family. Loved getting to know new friend, Robin better.

I volunteered at the Royal Slumber Crop for Scrapbook Royalty. That was a great experience. In the past and present, I am the behind the scenes gal...doing computer work. Now I have a better idea of how things actually come together. It was a huge event and the volunteers worked very hard to make it a nice time for 140 scrapbookers. Together they raised over $26,000 for Cancer Coping Center and the Boys and Girls Club of San Marcos.

Went to the Price is Right at CBS Studios with the girls. What an experience that was! Had tickets! Up at 4:00 a.m., arrived on the CBS lot at 8:30 a.m. for the 1:00 show. Too late! People had been waiting since 4:00 a.m. WHAT! ARE YOU KIDDING! We were told we had a good chance of making the 4:00 p.m. taping. Received our number, went to the French Quarter for a great breakfast, back by 11:30, waited until 2:30 only to be told that we were not getting in to see the show. They had overbooked by more than 100 people. We were very disappointed. Came straight home, went to flower fields, and dinner at Islands. Even with the disappointment and constant driving all day, it was a fun day just being with my girls.

Elena, founder of Scrapbook Royalty, sponsored a trip to the Scrap Retreat House for a weekend for some of the SBR volunteers. What a blast! I stayed up until 4:00 a.m. both Friday and Saturday nights. We scrapbooked around the clock. The Scrap Retreat House is located in French Valley, CA...East of Murrietta. It's a lovely home that has been designed to cater to weekend scrapbookers. It sleeps 12 and every room has a bathroom. Each guest gets their own bed and a six foot table for scrapping. There were 6 in our group, another group of 2 and a group of 4. We all scrapped together and it was completely comfortable and fun. Our group of 6 played the Pass the Page game late Saturday night. We took a photo of all 6 of us and Elena printed it 6 times. Then we each started a page that included the photo. Every 10 minutes we passed the page to the right and someone added something else to the page. We each ended up with a page for our scrapbooks that was completely unique and awesome! It was really fun! I could go on and on. You really must check out the Scrap Retreat House for your next getaway with the girls. I can't wait to go back.

This month also included several beading days with my beading friends. I made a jewelry set for the Silent Auction at Royal Slumber Crop and I made a couple of sets for the Rescue House Silent Auction that's coming up later this month.

Lauren and I went to South Sun one day and we both felt and acted like kids in a candy store. They had just gotten a huge shipment and the place was full. If you've never been there, it's a warehouse of beads. They had sales galore. It was so hard to choose. Both of us were broke, but we each ended up going home with big bags of beads and findings because the sales were so good.

Royal Slumber Crop

2009-03-13T19:30:00.000-07:00

I'm like a kid the night before the big trip to Disneyland. I'm attending a Scrapbook Royalty event this weekend to benefit the Cancer Coping Center and the Boys & Girls Club of San Marcos. It's a two day scrapbooking event with over 100 women. I can't wait!

On behalf of Scrapbook Royalty, I want to make sure that you know that on Saturday there will be silent auctions and raffles and a company on site to buy your gold, silver, gems, watches, silverware etc for competitive market prices. They will give you cash on the spot and donate 12% of whatever they buy to the charities! If you're local, come by for this part of the event, which is open to the public. If you're not local, please visit their auction and raffle blog. www.sbrauctions.blogspot.com This is open to the public as well. Or, you can help us reach our fundraising goal of $20,000 by making a donation in my name through their website at http://www.scrapbookroyalty.org/slumbercrop.html There is always charitable fundraising going on at Scrapbook Royalty and there are many ways to participate. Add their website to your favorites. If you're so inclined, thank you for your support!

Trip to LA Shopping District

2009-02-11T11:12:00.000-08:00

My friend Elena from Scrapbook Royalty and I went to downtown LA yesterday to purchase items for the upcoming Royal Slumber Crop. The ride up only took about two hours and was awesome because the view of the mountains was spectacular. They were white with snow. Hard to get a picture from the car, but here's a little bit of the view. We went through fabric stores, bead & button stores and of course hit the Starbucks a couple of times. It was not crowded and we spent the majority of the day just shopping and gabbing. It was a lot of fun.

A Year In Review

2009-01-31T10:25:00.000-08:00

Jeez, it's almost February. I was thinking about what I've been doing this month. Wanted to mention the great class that sis and I took at Ever After Scrapbooks. It was our first time at the new location. Loved it! The class was called a Year in Review and was created and taught by Dawn Tumelty. A calendar book that you can add pics to as they happen! Absolutely darling! We got the whole 12 months done in one afternoon. Cool fun! Dawn makes incredible cookies too...mmmmgood!

Learning How to Stamp

2009-01-25T10:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was fun! I took a card/stamping class with Jill Grace at Cool Scrapbook Stuff. Jill is a very creative instructor for A Muse Art Stamps. She introduced me to stamping. I've been scrapbooking for 10 years and have never taken a stamping class. I have a photo box full of stamps, ink pads, embossing powders and a lot of wishful thinking, but never actually knew what to do with them, other than the obvious and it always looked awful. Jill showed us techniques to ensure a good stamp. Loved the class and the absolutely expert cards that I (me) created. Now I know how to stamp and color it in with Copic markers. Copic markers are my new favorite tools. I also love the Elzybells stamps. Go to the website and click on Elzybells. I want the entire collection. I think I have to figure out a way to buy wholesale because I fear a new collection of stamps and Copic markers is looming in my future. I don't see how I can live without them. Thanks Grace for a ton of inspiration. I'm off to make cards with my new Elzybell stamp and two Copic markers.