With a Heavy Heart

Dear friends...this is most likely one of the hardest posts I have ever written. My dear friend Phyllis, who is undergoing treatment for lung cancer, has been told that the rigorous chemo and radiation she has been subjected to is not working. Her doctor has told her and her family that their is nothing more he can do. God, how I hate those words. 

My heart is breaking for her husband and beautiful daughter Crystal. I cannot keep the tears from staining my keyboard when I think about this warm, vibrant and guiding light going dark. Phyliss and I were going to be future mothers-in-law together. My son Sean and Crystal have been dating at least 9 years!

I want to scream..rant..and throw things at this monster we call cancer.

I have decided that in order to spend as much time as possible with my friend, I am going to be closing my Etsy shop for a while, turn the sewing machine light off and back away from my online presence. I have thought about this decision and I have to do this...she is my friend. I need to be with my friend.

I know you will understand and hopefully in the future I will return and you will remember me and come visit again. I will miss you and all your creativeness and inspiration. 

Please keep good thoughts for Phyliss and her family and I hope to see you here again when time allows.

I wish you all a wonderful holiday season...

P.S......Some friends and I are going to surprise Phyliss tomorrow and decorate her house for the holidays...she LOVES Christmas! I think that will put a smile on her face.

Until next time...be kind and stay creative

Tutorial Tuesday With Hope Studios

Hello friends..I have a few spare minutes , so I thought I would share my recent glitter project.

I have some oval canvas placemats that I had painted years ago. I decided to cut them up and create some pretty holiday ornaments for my home and to sell. So here we go...

You can still purchase canvas placemats at Michaels or maybe use stiff watercolor paper.

I used a friends  Sissix Big Kick cutter to cut my giant snowflakes, but I could have just as easily handcut stars of simpler snowflakes. Holiday tree shapes would be pretty also.

Close-up of my snowflake

I brushed on a liberal layer of white craft glue

Then sprinkled them with a nice thick coating of glitter. I often use German Glass glitter or you can use all the beautiful colors of Martha Stewart Glitter..also available at Michaels.

I save all my disposable pie tins for projects like this. You can recapture the glitter and pour it back into it's container. Glitter goes a very long way.

I tied pretty ribbons on some and used simple silver ornament hangers.

Gold..Silver..Red and Turquoise...so many festive colors

I took a tree branch and sprayed it white and will use it to display my holiday ornaments at the Holiday Fair on Friday

I also used the same technique to make my glitter holiday words that I cut from recycled cereal boxes.

How inexpensive is that? It's pretty much...dare I say it...free!

So until next time...be kind and stay creative.

Head over to Hope Studios for lot's of other cool tutorials and tell Jenn that I sent you!

P.S....A word of warning...my niece calls glitter the herpes of the craft world. I was not sure what she meant until I got into this project...you will find glitter in places you never thought you would and just when you think you have cleaned it all up....it shows up again. It never ...ever goes away  ;-)

Three days later I found some in the upstairs linen closet...what the heck!!!!

Please Pardon My Absence

I don't mean to be neglecting my poor blog, however I have been very busy preparing for my next holiday craft fair. 

I will be a vendor at the Fauquier Hospital Holiday Fair on Friday the 19th of November. If you are in the Warrenton, Virginia area, please come to the Bistro and you can find me in space #88. The fair will run from 11am until 4pm, so come say hi and enjoy some holiday shopping.

This will be my last show for the year and I am looking forward to doing my own shopping, baking and decorating.

So until next time...be kind and stay creative.

PS...If I get some extra time I will do a tutorial on my recycled canvas glittered snowflake ornaments that I am making for my shop.

It was a huge success!

Hello friends...well I'm home and pooped! What a whirlwind of a weekend. I drove to New York on Thursday in the pouring rain all 7 hours. Not much traffic and no construction, so I just set my Ipod on NPR's 'This American Life' podcasts and took it easy.

Once there, I spent Thursday night and Friday setting up and running last minute errands for food and wine (of course!).

Saturday morning arrived in a cold, but sunny and fabulous fall day. I could not have asked for better weather. The chill in the air put shoppers in the perfect mood for gloves and neckwarmers! 

You will have to forgive me for the lack of photos...the day got so busy and I never seemed to have time to stop to take photos! I guess that was a good thing.

 I hung ornaments from Susanne's gorgeous chandy and my cereal box glitter banners were a huge hit...sold them all!

 The bonus of the day was a reunion with my dear friend Mary, from high school. She was my first shopper and came bearing two bottles of lovely wine and a beautiful sister, Carol...thanks Mar!

 I did end up creating removable felted brooches for my neckwarmers. I sold two of these and took orders for a few more.

 My young friend Simone went back to college sporting a new fleece hat...isn't she pretty?

 My cute as a button great niece, Merrick, also left sporting a pretty cream fleece hat. She loved the fleece rosette.

I sold lot's of aprons, holiday ornaments, fingerless gloves and felted pumpkins and handbags.

Family and friends came and went all day and in the end a wonderful time was had by all. Thanks to there generosity and to my niece Susanne, I will be writing a nice fat check to the American Cancer Society.

I do have a last minute update...I just signed up for the local Fauquier Hospital Holiday Fair on November 19th. 

Yeah...I know, I only have 10 days to get ready...shoot me now girls!

I think I have a fabulous location...only 3 tables were offered in the hospitals cafeteria. This hospital is famous for it's cafeteria food, it is like a good restaurant...people come here just to eat. I secured one of the 3 tables which I feel will be like having a captive audience...I'm excited!

Because of all this activity coming up, I may be a little absent for the next week or so, but I will be back!

Until then..be kind and stay creative.

A Must See...'Alice Dancing Under the Gallows' - Official Trailer

Hello friends, I'm doing this by auto post. One of my favorite musicians, Regina Spektor, posted this on my Facebook yesterday. I watched and as I did so, tears came. Not tears of sadness, but tears of joy. Just looking at Alice and listening to her incredible story made me so happy and very, very grateful for all that my family and I have.

Please take a few minutes to watch this video and you will understand. I promise it will be the best 12 minutes you have spent in a very long time.

I wonder if Alice ever thought that some 68 years later she would be wearing pearls and still entertaining friends at her beloved piano. 

And she still has a sparkle in her eyes  ;-)

Be Inspired!

Going Underground!

Hello friends....it's time!  I will be away from my blog for a few days. My Holiday Open House is this Saturday. I'm packing up today and headed out for New York in the morning. My sweet hubby will be manning the home front this weekend.

I'll be at Susanne's beautiful home

hoping to sell some of these....the hats...not the princesses! 

a few of these...

I hope they like these...

lot's of these...

Yes..I said lot's....

Stay warm with these...

Will they yearn for these???

In the end I hope to make some of these...

So I can make a good donation to these people....

I'll be back next week and if I get a chance, I might post from NY.

Until next time...be kind and stay creative.

Salvation Macy's Sweater Redo

Hello friends...I was digging through my wool sweater stash today and found this beauty. A lovely pale yellow wool pullover that I rescued at my Salvation Macy's for $1.75. 

I machine felted it and shrunk it to about half it original size. I love that it still managed to retain it's great knitted textural design. It just got thicker and oh so soft.

 Notice the label...not so shabby for $1.75. It is in perfect condition also. 

 After cutting the sweater up, I decided it would make a fabulous cool weather shoulder bag. I also created a few small pouches from the sleeves and the bottom ribbing...waste not..want not.

So here we go!

I boxed the bottom to give it more room inside. The strap is secured to my bag with leather I salvaged from an outdated vintage skirt. I love the soft texture of the knit pattern.

I crocheted flowers, felted some of them and embellished the bag with these posies.

You know I adore pretty linings, so I used a sunny linen fern print and added a pocket from another floral cotton. Much to my hubby's chagrin, I added my name to the inside(see past post for that story)

Still worried that I don't have enough to offer at my Open House this Saturday, I knit and crocheted four more cowls...I know, I'm a crazy woman!

I adore these wonderful and very practical scarf pins. I think I might also add some removable felted flower pins to these lovely cowls.
Let's see ....what else can I whip up???
Until next time..be kind and stay creative