In the pink!

No...I'm not having another baby. (hehe! gotcha, didn't I?) My sister-in-law is and she has 3 boys, so this is big news! I'm having a baby shower next weekend for her that's going to be so much fun to plan. I'm going to go over the top girly!!! I have had this vintage baby announcement card for ages from an estate sale and hope to use it on something at the shower. Maybe on some place cards? I found this Pink Princess cookbook at work last night. It has some fun, easy, very pink recipes:) These raspberry tea sandwiches look delicious! I want to have some yummy cupcakes. These gorgeous creations were found here on flickr.For decor, I have some bubblegum pink festooning and large pink tissue paper orbs. I'm sure I'll add a lot of flowers. I was very inspired by these photos from Rachel Ashwells The Gift of Giving book. Love to look here for inspiration. My table probably won't look quite like this, but a girl can dream, right? If you have any ideas or pictures to share, I'd love to hear. The shower isn't until the 21st. Thanks!

This is just too cute to boot. Made by the wonderful fleamarketstudio. Maybe as a little giftie. Ambitious, I know:) Have a great weekend!

{Make Me Happy} Thursday

You all know about Oilily, right? They make the most yummy clothing, bags, shoes and more in absolutely stunning colors, textures and patterns! I've always been a big fan of the Anthropologie catalog. Well this is just as much eye candy and a very different style. Looking at the catalog truly makes me smile:) This one in particular, I love the words coupled with the images and the photography style. Inspires me to capture my world and celebrate each day!!!!! It totally piques my senses, and makes me want to create vibrant, happy art. Talk about creative spark! So I think I'm going to try to post each Thursday a "Make Me Happy" creativity boost. What's really getting me going lately. Fun stuff!!! I'd LOVE to hear from you too. Check out my flickr for lots more pics from this catalog. Ok, I'm off to create:)

Some swap lovin'...

Anyone else getting the swappping bug lately? If so, there are plenty to choose from going on right now! I've been gathering my stuff and getting excited about several of them:)

*Over at The Vintage Dragonfly, there's a fabulous Valentine's doll swap going on. Registration ends the 14th.

*Today's the last day to sign up for the vintage ephemera swap over at My Art Soul Wings.

*If you're really into swapping, check out the Gifty Swap site for some on-going swaps.

*This sounds like a great craft book one-to-one swap.

*Just found Thrifty Goodness blog today and she's doing a pink and brown swap. Sign-ups for this end today.

*The adorable blog green bean baby is hosting a Valentine's crafty swap. Looks like it just filled up, but go check out her blog anyway:) I'm sure she'll host more in the future.

Join in the fun!! I had such a great time with the last swap I hosted, I just may have to do another. All those beautiful packages of goodies coming to the mailbox:) Hmmm...I'm thinking maybe a bird swap as it gets closer to spring. Stay tuned...

Everybody's doing it..

Woohoo! I'm officially on flickr! Couldn't resist any more. I see so much amazing artwork and inspiration that I decided to finally join in the party. Then I saw Pam's post on the Moo cards she ordered of pictures from her Flickr account. So cool! So I went ahead and dumped a bunch of pictures into my flickr account and of course ordered my own set of Moo cards with MY art on them:) The cards will have my contact info on the back and should be perfect for ArtFest and other fun events! Yay! I have much to learn and many, many more pictures to download, but I'm off and running! So check me out:)

I didn't have to look hard and found some *major* eye candy out there. What stunning stuff. Here is a list of a few of my favorites. So what are YOUR favorite Flickr sites?

Intention and Elsie's challenge {wk. #1}

I feel like I'm kind-of putting things into place for the new year. Organizing my thoughts and priorities, deciding what's important. One thing that's at the heart of it all is Ali's challenge to pick one word for the year. A word to sum up what you want for yourself in 2007. After reading this, the word create immediately popped into my head. I'm always striving to challenge myself to create whenever possible. Then after reading this post, the phrase honor my creativity, whenever it comes, whatever form it takes jumped off the page at me. So it's official, my word is CREATE! It doesn't necessarily mean I have to make a layout everyday or do some sort of art (but it could), it could mean creating more healthful meals for my family, creating stronger friendships, creating more free time (don't I wish!).

After reading the book Living Artfully my definition of living a creative life has expanded tenfold. Has anyone else gotten a hold of this book and read it? I'd love to hear what you think. The layout above was made to honor my word for 2007 and state my intention. The picture is of me working alongside other artists (my favorite way to create) at Silver Bella. This year I have big plans to create LOTS of art. I am more than thrilled to be going to ArtFest at the end of March. I hope to create lots of fun little gifties to trade there and also participate in the art show-and-tell that will be taking place and of course bring a handmade journal with me to scrapbook my weekend! It will be a dream come true for me to create with such amazing teachers and fellow artists. Can't wait!! Anyone else out there going?

Part of what I would love to accomplish is creating layouts to keep up with all the photos that I take. To help with this I'm going to use Elsie's book 52 Scrapbooking Challenges and post a challenge here, on my blog, every Sunday if you'd like to play along with me. Since there's 52, this will last a whole year! So let's get started...

Challenge {number one} work with words. From the book: Whether it's a quote, a list of your favorite adjectives or computer generated phrases, journaling on strips of cardstock is a great way to add visual excitement to your page. So here's mine (above). If you choose to play along and post your layout on your blog, please post a comment with a link here so we can all check it out.

One final (very exciting!) note is that one of my favorite, new found blogger artists beshka is going to start posting challenges from the fabulous book Caffeine for the Creative Mind on her blog starting the 15th. She will post a challenge every 2 weeks. Come join us, it will be fun!!!!

Here's to a fabulous year of ~*creating*~

Feeling random...

I'm calling these my random collages. They're full of bits of this and that from estate sales, magazines, fabric, notions and other ephemera that I've always loved and treasured. Some pieces are old, some new, and they've all been waiting for a new home. I started going through my vintage stuff getting a packet ready for this swap (hope you'll join in!) and realized the extent of stuff I've collected that I've never used in my art. I decided it's time to bring these little gems out into the sunlight and let them shine and inspire throughout my day:) This lovely lady (above) is by Laini's Ladies, check out all the goodies here. Oh my, and she has a blog!! I actually bought this as a Valentine's present for my mom and when I got it home it just seemed too perfect for the page. Yes mom, I'll be sure and go buy another!
So as you can see, my little craft space had already changed considerably from earlier in the week. Love that it's so organic and changes on a whim! These collages were inspired in no small part by the following art. Hula Seventy's collage is so vibrant and energizing..
Lia just posted this collage that I totally love!!

....and VERY inspired by Alicia's collages here.

New inspiration and an important benefit

I like to share a picture when I change up my scrap space. Not sure why, I guess then you can all picture where I do my art:) Simple, yet inspiring. I look at it a thousand times a day, because if you could see the rest of the room, you would see that right next to this dresser is our dining room table. Yes, my "studio" is my family dining area. I love it! I have this great dresser and a little cabinet of drawers to hold my stuff, then when I want to work on something I just put it on the breakfast bar in our kitchen and can poke at it throughout the day. If the kids are in bed, I spread out on the table and get to work. It's the center of the home and I love to have the visual inspiration around me all the time. Here are some more photos during summer, fall, and winter. By the way, how's this for an inspiring New Year's project. Love it!Since the calendar I made here for my sister was such a huge hit with her, I decided to spend some time making myself one for the year. Her numbers were a little more uniform, I may try to make mine less gaudy. The month on top is magnetic, along with all the numbers, so I just change it out each month and store them behind the calendar on the cookie pan. The picture below shows the little cubbie in our kitchen where it hangs alongside Lowell's art work:)

I bought two of these crazy cool peacock feather trees. Funky! Here's what our front window looks like now after taking down the Christmas tree. I needed a post-Christmas, pre-Valentine's wintery feel. I decided to put up this frilly white feather tree along with my lovely star from Jenny. It looks great from the street for passers-by. Edit- all the feather trees are from Target of all places. 75% off with their Christmas stuff!

Here is some VERY important news!! The auction of *amazing* artwork all benefitting the Kim family began today on ebay. Here's an article about why it was organized. Glad to see the bidding is going really well already:) Go bid...it's for a good cause!!!

Feelin' shiny and new..and up for a challenge!

It's a new year....I have a lovely new day planner by the wonderful Denise, a new family scrapbook, some new *fabulous* Basic Grey Blush paper and all in a new color palette! I think it was all originally inspired by this amazing pink and green pointsettia plant against my creamy yellow walls. Then I found myself buying a table runner with warm brown, pink and greens, then came the paper and now I want my entire house under a warm cozy covering of dusty rose, nutty brown, nougat {Don't you love that word?!! Definition: a confectionary goo} and shades of green. Mmmmmmm....

So I'm feeling all level headed and motivated and have found some fabulous new challenges. I know many people resolve to create every day and these make make that just a bit easier. Check them out! First off, a Fancy Word for Simple blog will post a quote each day and you can choose to... *Think about it *Write about it *Take photographs *Create art or whatever! Sounds like no pressure fun to me. You don't even have to commit, just check it out here at your leisure. Next, I think to get going on some of my family scrapbooking and also help me try some new techniques, I'm going to be periodically posting some challenges from Elsie's book 52 Scrapbooking Challenges. You don't have to have her book to play along. I will post here on my blog what the challenge is and if you want, post your page on your blog and leave a comment so we can all check them out! Again, no pressure, just fun...that's what I'm all about in 2007!:) Finally, the amazing Beshka is going to be posting some challenges from the very cool book Caffeine for the Creative Mind. Keep checking her blog for details:) In the meantime, check out this blog for "encouraging an active, purposeful quest for creative stretching, the concept of preparing and training our minds for creative thought." Cool! Soooo....are you up for it?!!

~*Happy New Year!!*~

Happy New Year to all!! This is what our neighborhood looked like this morning. A wonderful fresh clean slate for a new year. Gorgeous:)
Here is my final page in my Christmas Journal. My intentions for 2007. Many are the same as last year, and I intend to just continue with those. Some of them are new, such as creating and teaching classes at JustBe in October. Here are the last two pages side by side.
This journal was so much fun! I'm so glad I did it:)

My husband and I spend the evening with my sister and her husband. We had a nice, relaxing evening. It was wonderful! Here is our table centerpiece (above) and a picture of my sister and I just before midnight!
Here's to a creatively inspired new year!!!!

Good-bye 2006...it's been fun!

Wow, it's the last day of 2006! Can you believe it?! For my Christmas Journal page I made a mosiac background of some of the art I made this past year. I had so much fun art and blogging! Thank you all for visiting and for your encouragement. On my blog birthday post, I shared many links to many, many projects I worked on this year. Fun stuff! I hope to do many, many more in 2007. I know there was a lot of interest in my Book of Dreams project this past year and I really hope to put together something fun like that again soon. I also really, really look forward to attending ArtFest in March and teaching at JustBe in Oct. You know I'll be sharing all the glorious fun here on my blog:) Here's to an **artful** New Year!!!

Christmas layouts

I got a couple more of my layouts scanned (yea, bad scans..I know). I LOVE the new Basic Grey Blush paper I used on this cookie making layout:) Wow! Can't wait to use it on some upcoming projects. I think I'm going to start doing some of the *52 challenges* in Elsie's book. I'm feeling a bit rusty (and behind) on my family scrapbooking stuff. I really enjoyed doing the challenges that Anne posted from Ali's book awhile back. Really got me to try new things. Anyone want to give them a whirl with me?

Out and about

Haven't had a whole lot to post on in the last few days. I haven't worked on my art, because I've been out and about having a great time with my sister and her family in town. Yesterday we went to the Mall of America and saw the World's Largest Gingerbread house (below). Pretty cool! Look at all of those chocolate bars and that lolly!!

Then my sister and I went out last night and cropped at a local scrapbook store. I worked on some of the pictures that we had taken over the last few days. I got a few layouts done, but this is the only one I was able to photograph in daylight. Very basic and clean for me, but I thought it was fun to put family pictures of both sides together on the same layout. I framed it in a black 12x12" frame and have it on my wall.

I'm going to try to catch up on my Christmas journal tonight. I only have two pages left in my book, so I think I'll end it with Dec. 30th and 31st. Reflecting a lot as 2006 draws to a close and looking ahead to great things in 2007!!

{Day 27} Visions...and a birthday!

{Day 27} journal prompt is on sleeping and dreaming. About rest and rejuvenation the week between Christmas and New Year's. Since I have two small children, who have no idea about the concept of "sleeping in" my sleep schedule hasn't changed a whole lot. They still love to get up at 5 am! However, one thing I have noticed is that I have been having very creative, vibrant dreams. This has affected my perspective while awake. I also noticed that as soon as Christmas was over my color palette changed. I have become inspired by candy-coated colors. Maybe my friend Jenny is rubbing off on me:) So immediately I thought about the phrase "visions of sugar plums danced in thier heads..." because that's what I feel like right now. Life is so full of vitality and inspiration:)

I've been having such a great time with my sister over the last week. Yesterday we celebrated her birthday. My mom and I found this fab Dept. 56 Glitterville hat. Couldn't be more perfect!! Happy Birthday, Laura!!! Hope you're enjoying this week, whatever you're up to.

{Day 26} The day after...

{Day 26} is a very different entry in my journal. First off, I was thrilled to find out that our Christmas journal prompts go through the 12 days of Christmas, ending January 6th. The "day after Christmas" page was about what we do on this day, whether we celebrate Boxing Day or go hit the sales. For me, we drove down to Iowa to visit my cousins and spend the day with my mother's side of the family. We had a great day. However, for my journal, I chose to do a simple page with a different theme. The challenge of the day was to use something in our layout that we would normally throw away. So I looked through the daily paper and was very intriqued by this picture I found. It was a couple of girls dressed with angel wings walking down the street. I loved the picture and wanted to use it on my page. I looked through the wonderful new books my hubby gave me for Christmas (below) for a technique I could try. It sure has a different feel, but appropriate for the day:) There was a little blurb with the picture stating that its part of the celebration of the Passage of the Traveling Saint, which Equadoreans participate in. I was touched and felt like it belonged in my journal. I used the word hope and wrote my journaling bit about how after the holiday's are done, it's a time for rejuvenation and reflection on our hopes and dreams for the new year!

Here are the wonderful books my fabulous hubby gave me for Christmas. Love them all!!