Free Style Clothes Swapp

This weekend was so much fun! I threw a little party. I was afraid there would be a bad turnout, but we managed to cram 12 girls into my little living room. Jess helped me and she brought a yummy chocolate cake and some heart shaped bars. Amy helped me make mini cheesecakes and we had some choc. fondue with strawberries. We all brought clothes that we were sick of. We set up the clothes in my living room. We drew numbers and one by one picked out some "new clothes" I think everyone had a blast and went away with something cool. Unfortunately I don't have my little sis' pics right now of us trying on some of the reject clothes! That was the best!



My husband never ceases to amaze me. I told Amy that I mentioned a week ago that flowers would be nice for our party. As he was gone, out getting some last minute ingredients I needed, I was hoping that he would just pick some up. Amy said that he was amazing if he indeed picked up flowers that were not on the list. I said, "He can be amazing!" Of course, my sweetheart came through!

Art Challenge Catch Up

So I finally did the deck of cards art challenge. For now I used the journal prompts that Emily Falconbridge gave on her blog. Some weeks I may pick my own topics. I loved doing this. It is the smallest art I have done and it is fun to try new techniques. It's also very rewarding because it doesn't take too long. I still need to make a cute little case. I bought these cute Norman Rockwell winter scene pictures at an antique shop in Red Wing, MN.

#1 Something you are proud of

So this is the last card that I did last night. I wanted to do a cool image transfer but it didn't work too well the first time around and I was too tired to try again. I will redo this one, but since I stole jess and jeffs camera (thanks guys!) I have to take full advantage and post pics. I did journaling on the back.



#2 What is powerful to you?

To me this there was only one thing that came to mind. It's hard to tell by the picture, but it is written on cloud patterned paper. God is so cool, powerful and amazing!
#3 Make an I am statement

I liked this one, thought it was kinda fun. I say I'm beginning because I want to start putting into action my dreams and stuff I want to pursue. I am just now feeling really confident with decisions I make and just being comfortable with my own style. Last year was all about adventure and Sam and I did some crazy things. So those adventurous experiences give me the courage to dream big and believe in it. I'm beginning this blog! I'm beginning to make things so I can sell them. I'm beginning to be content no matter what my circumstances are. I could go on here. This I am statement can provoke a lot of soul searching!

I just painted it with acrylic paint and put some stickers on it and a label. I etched away the paint for the words

#4 A symbol you love

This was a tough one for me to think of. My mom called me her sunshine girl because I was always smiling and I liked to help her. It's a happy memory! I like the sun though! Love being outside, love feeling it on my face! I'm happier when the sun is around. And of course I made it using my favorite art medium as a child, cray pas! They are the best! So I made the sun on one side and journaled my love of cray pas on the back after i sanded it.


#5 Use some ephemera from your week

I loved this one! I love saving little things from trips to scrapbook. The problem is, I never get around to scrapping them, or I have trouble finding the things I save. Sam is working on this one with me! Sam and I had a wonderful weekend getaway to Redwing at a B&B. The sticker was on a bar of soap they gave us. Life's little Oasis was stamped on the outside of a brown paper bag that I got when I bought cute little dress notepads from a little shop. The little redwing symbol was from a business card. The colorful stuff on the bottom left is also from a business card from these artists who do awesome things with copper. Good memories!


#6 Some V-day LOVE

I had so much fun with this one. I mimicked the valentine bookmarks i made and gave to friends for this one. It's so funny, I never got around to sending out christmas cards, so why not a big Valentine letter? And I wanted to put something in it people could use. So, I made bookmarks. Sam and I love books, Sam is obsessed with them! Reading is so awesome, so my v-day love is for books!
I used a cool marbling technique for this paper. You take shaving cream (always fun to play with shaving cream) and squirt it into a disposable aluminum pan. Squirt some acrylic paints all over the place. Take a toothpick and swirl some marble designs into it. Then you push your paper onto the colored shaving cream, make sure the paper makes full contact with the shaving cream. This is where the fun messy part comes in! You take a piece of cardboard or a paintscraper and scrape the shaving cream off, to expose your pretty swirly paint! I also dug out the typewriter to type these cool reading quotes. Also used a heart punch from the one spot at target. I got in trouble this valentines day with the dollar stuff. They had stamps, stickers, letters, I couldn't resist!


#7 Shoes, everyone has a story to tell.

I don't have too much of a story to tell with me and shoes. Size 11 doesn't make that too much fun! But I do love my chaco's! They are so comfy. I don't have a shoe fetish, I have a slipper fetish! I'm going to do a future post on that.

Sam on the other hand, he has quite the story! He needed new shoes badly when we were backpacking in Europe. We spent our whole day in Switzerland finding the perfect new pair for him. We finally bought them. He still couldn't bring himself to throwing them away! He would drag around these stinky(they were BAD) holey, red shoes train to train, country to country. Something happened in Bari, Italy. He was ready to part with his beloved red shoes! I love this cute picture of him saying goodbye to his love. Sam's mom told me quite the cute stories of his love for shoes when he was little. I'll save that for another time.

So that catches me up for now! I have more to tell about my fun weekend last week, and the crafting that I've been up to. I think this is quite a long enough blog post!

Art Challenge

Just a quickie. So I'm not late for work at the scrapbook store! I'm inspired by Emily Falconbridge. She is doing an art challenge for this year. Easy, take a deck of cards and alter it, one a week. I have her link here, it's the embers one. Check it out. I haven't done it yet, so ladies it's catch up time, do 5 now and you'll be caught up. Hopefully I'll get some on here by tonight!

I make Cakes

The first one is my friend Jess and Jeff's cake. The second (green cake) was Kim and Kyle's, the third (the white with orange) was mine. No I'm not completely crazy, it was a dummy cake, so I made it ahead of time. The last fun mad hatter pink and orange cake was done for Jenny's Sweet 16!

I did it, my first blog!

As the pile of tissues rise up around me, I wonder, will this be the day I start my blog? I spend an hour searching my favorite blogs and inspirations. I want to have my own little online store. A cozy February day in Wisconsin. Very sunny which doesn't happen all too often. I'm sitting by the window staring at the river that is still meandering, fighting to resist the freeze. Should I make Valentine treats today? Or Valentine bookmarks. Now that our place is in shape. I'm sipping some coffee bought at the organic shop around the corner. Sam had to run and get some, because we can't go a day without our coffee! Eau Claire does have cool little spots, I just need to be willing to pay to support them. So tempting to sit here all day and enjoy the sun without enduring the frigid temps. So what am I waiting for? How do I start a blog? And so it begins, I will start my blog today. To you Jessica, thanks for encouraging me!

So this was my little journal for today. I thought, what am I waiting for, well, for starters a cool name. And since none of my friends were around to consult what name I should give this, here it is, a little lame-0 I know! So now I've opened pandora's box! My apologies, I know nothing about computer stuff. I am in love with other peoples blogs, but I've just silently looked on. I love the idea of photoshop, but if i fall in love with it, it's just one more thing that I will want to do, but never get around to. So I've put off doing this because I didn't want to do it until I had the perfect name, cool pics to put on it. But I'm doing it. Please forgive me, it may take awhile for this to look cool. I can't wait till my other awesome friends join in, because it would be amazing if I type Jess or Ames, and you can click and see their cool art and ideas.

I have so many ideas for this little blog of mine. I intend on linking you to my fave bloggers and inspiration, show some little pics that make me happy. I don't know, should I put a little bio on here? My interests: all things artsy, baking, cake decorating, scrapbooking! I love making stuff and I would love to do it full time. I'm a firm believer in dreaming big and working hard to make it happen. Have a fabulous day everyone!