Tuesday, September 27, 2011

FREE online Crochet Class

Does any one want to join me in a month long FREE crochet class? Then head on over to Craftyminx's blog and sign up! C'mon ~ it's going to be fun. :)
I've been wanting to learn how to crochet, so what better time than now?

Saturday, September 24, 2011

KC Willis Collage Camp


Jackie made these delicious and adorable cookies for our class today with KC Willis. KC is teaching at the Paper Crown for the next couple of days. Today we learned how to make gorgeous mixed media collages. This class was completely sold out and she had to add an additional day to accommodate everyone wanting to take her class. After today, I wish I could take each and every one while she is here. On Monday she will be instructing on how to make amazing fabric book collages. Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it to that class but there are a couple spots left if anyone is interested! KC is awesome - her work is absolutely beautiful and she makes you feel so welcome ~ you feel like you have known her forever.
I left with a completed project and I love it. The picture below is my project not quite complete but if you jump over to Jackie's blog you can see more class pictures and many completed projects. I highly recommend you check it out!

Our friend Jemellia was also in class and I was able to get a picture of her with her project.

Lastly, I met a new blog friend in class today. Francy and I read each other's blogs and it was great to finally meet her in person!

Monday, September 19, 2011

Back from Handmade U!

What a fun weekend! We arrived on Thursday night at Minglewood Cabin in Gretna, Nebraska. After settling in and seeing old friends and meeting new friends we sat down for dinner. We had a wonderful home made meal. Rachel's dad prepared smoked chicken and Rachel's mom made baked beans.
The first evening was spent getting to know each other by talking and filling out cute little notebooks with answers to a bunch of questions.

On Friday, Michelle Geller of Hold Dear taught us how to make beautiful journals. Her class kits were over the top with beautiful vintage papers. This is a picture of my crafting spot with the kit.
You wouldn't even believe how generous these kits were - the pictures do not do them justice. Not to even mention all the yummy supplies we had access to in addition to the kits!
We worked all day on Friday on our covers and creating our pages to make our journals. The time just flew by and after working all day and most of the night, this is what I came up with:

I love, love, love my journal. Below is a picture of a few of the "spines" of our journals. I embroidered my name on the spine of my journal.

On Saturday, we shifted gears and Rachel taught us to create a "quilt" panel on a canvas. She instructed us on various techniques to use and let us put our own spin on the project. It is amazing to see the different quilt panels. Here is mine:

Here is a collage of all of our panels:

Here is a picture of all of our journals:

Rachel's mom Sara made these beautiful treat bags with our names embroidered on them. Check out Sara's blog for awesome pictures of the the retreat and the cabin we stayed in.

On our final evening we took a field trip to Rachel's parent's home. Her parents cooked a wonderful meal for all of us and we got a "lesson" about Sara's long arm quilting machine. It was quite an evening!
Finally, all the treats!
Hope Ellington made beautiful Handmade U necklaces for all of us, Nora and Lindy made beautiful flower decorations for each attendee and the sponsor gifts were very generous.
Can't wait for Spring semester!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Packing for Handmade U!


Packing my bags to head to Gretna, Nebraska first thing tomorrow morning to attend Rachel's event: Handmade U!
Rachel will be teaching one class and Michelle Geller will be teaching another. Can't even wait!
I'll take lots of pictures and share next week.
I'm really trying to focus but I'm exhausted from the Flaming Lips Show last night at the Historical Brady Theatre in downtown Tulsa.


Doug is at the second performance tonight and he is backstage with Wayne Coyne putting together laser pointers. :)

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Book Club

It was a fun month for our book club. We not only read two books for the month but we also went and saw the movie for one:

Have you read it? Have you seen the movie? I *loved* this book. I couldn't put it down. I started reading it one evening and read until almost two in the morning before I forced myself to try to get some sleep, and then, I couldn't wait to pick it up and keep reading.
From what I had heard, the movie was very good too. The movie pretty much tracks the book but there were a few significant changes that were different from the book to the movie. The movie paints a much more sympathetic character of Skeeter's mother for one. There are a few other significant changes but I don't want to ruin it if you haven't quite had a chance to read the book or seen the movie. If you haven't - I highly recommend both. Feel free to comment with your own thoughts. :)
The second book we read was Room by Emma Donoghue. At first I didn't really care for the story but once I got past the first few pages I was hooked. It's a story about a woman and her son Jack who are locked up in a room. The story is told from the perspective of Jack who is five years old and was born in that room. It really makes you think about what you would do and how you would handle that situation. The scary thing is the preparation their captor undertook and that we don't know how many "missing" people may be living in this kind of situation. I didn't love Room nearly as much as I did The Help but it was an interesting read.
Our next selection in time for Halloween is: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness.
Do you have any suggestions for "must reads"?

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Jackie's Halloween Crow Spool Class

Last night I went to Oklahoma City to The Paper Crown to take another one of Jackie's fabulous classes.

She always makes the most adorable name tags for all of the students.

I was lucky to have my name selected for one of her door prizes. Isn't this just adorable!?

I didn't take a picture of the cookies she made but trust me ~ they were delicious! An Oreo cookie wrapped up inside a toll house cookie. Check out Jackie's blog if you are interested in the recipe.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

My sweet nephew


Uh Oh ~ somebody's trying to touch Daddy's stereo and he knows he's going to be in trouble!
Look at that sweet face!

This is my sister Amanda's baby Joao. Manda tells me that he is a busy social butterfly. He's pretty much happy all the time until she tells him "no" too many times then he gets frustrated. He *loves* daycare and the girls there love him too - can you blame them? I can't wait to get back to Connecticut and give this little guy such a squeeze!