Making Christmas gifts

Today I did not go outside at all. It feels like twenty degrees below zero. I can't handle this kind of weather. I booked a trip to see my brother in California. Hope that gets me through the winter. So I made some jewelry and here is a photo of some of the things I made. I also have been making lots of cards to give as gifts.

Tina doing the Penguin Dance

Quilting Frenzy

I made a list of life goals when I was in high school. When the movie Bucket List came out I figured everybody must have such a list. Then I found out I am the oddball. Anyhow, one of my life goals was to piece a quilt together. I started on Thursday and finished on Monday making this queen sized quilt for my bed. My niece helped by stacking the pieces together for me and pinning groups together and as I chain stitched them, she cut them apart. She was as excited as I was to make the quilt.

Black Friday

On Black Friday I did not partake in the crazy frenzy of shoppers. I have in the past, but this year feel more donations to charity are appropriate than buying gifts for others. So, if I can't make it with things I have, you probably aren't getting a gift this year. Anyhow, my wonderful neighbor and friend had a birthday and this is what I made for her. It is a fabric book with many pockets containing prayer cards or scripture verses. Enjoy!!!

Where have I been?

Ok, I've not posted in awhile. My sister retired from 20 years in the Air Force so the family flew to Colorado Springs for her retirement ceremony. Then she had reserve duty for 24 straight days in October while I watched her daughter 24/7. My dad had surgery and was in the hospital for 12 days and I was going quite often to see him even though it isn't close by. Then my hubby's grandmother whom I visit daily for 4 years since she's been in a foster care home was moved to another town and I try to go twice a week to see her. Did I mention I had a 16 day period of bleeding and developed shingles during this time???? Ok. I had a retirement party for my sister Nov. 14 and now am back on track. Oh yeah, during this time my computer crashed and I got another one...took that back and got another one....it's ok but I think it should do more for how much I paid. Can't seem to make my videos load so I'm just doing photos and may have to do some research....Vista may have a crazy place it is putting them...or my Kodak software isn't working right with Vista....

Blowing milkweed seed pods

Ok, I'll admit I am a child at heart. I went for a walk Sunday and was blowing these seed pods. Luckily, my neighbor has children and allowed them to go along so we could all blow seed pods together. Monarch butterflies love milkweed so we are helping them out!

My sister's first marathon

My sister ran her first marathon on Saturday, Sept. 20, at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH. My niece and I hung out in the 80 degree sunshine. Her time was 5 hours and 16 minutes. Not something I'm going to try. She looks and feels great and has lost a lot of weight, too!

ATCs

I've finally gotten around to making some ATCs. They are 2 1/2" by 3 1/2" which is the size of baseball trading cards. These are cards I'm sending off to friends.

Sewing Sleeping Bag Slipcovers

My sister is retiring from 20 years in the Air Force and they frequently drink Crown Royal. Well, she gave me a whole laundry basket full of them and asked me to make two sleeping bag covers. It took forever to cut the bags apart and pull out the strings. Then I used my rotary cutter and tried to make them into similar size rectangles to sew together. I used 5 spools of thread on this project! No, I wasn't weaving!!!! Anyhow, velcro is used to secure them in case they need to get out of their sleeping bags quickly. I guess our military works hard, and when they have time to play, they play hard. I've never had Crown Royal and don't care if I never see another bag in my life!

My Grandpuppy

Ok, no grandchildren on the horizon...and that's fine since neither of my sons are married! Anyhow, here are some photos of my lovely grandpuppy, Buck. By the way, he happens to be a nephew to our dog, Dakota.

Stamp Away in Cincinnati OH

Here are photos of my purchases and my friends at the stamping convention. I enjoyed Artful Illusions, B Line and Eclectic Marketplace. It was a very fun day and I spent way too much money but it was really a fun day. I can't wait to play with my new toys!

Garden Tour July 08

Tree Cutting Party

These photos are for my son in Iraq. Too bad you missed out on cutting the tree down. You heard all about it. I never said so many Our Fathers and Hail Mary prayers in one day before!!!!

Lori's Jackets

Sewing Equestrian Jackets

Where did the month of July go? Oh yes, I've been sewing my eyeballs out. My sister in law had asked me to make her some jackets for showing horses. No pattern and custom fit. After the sewing is complete, then I had to bling up the jackets. Whew! It was fun and a bit of a challenge to place the gems on the jackets. Many were placed one by one. The collars had iron on designs so that was much easier!

My niece & kittens

My niece & kittens

Check out the video my niece did of herself and the kittens! Too cute.

Flowers for my birthday

Here are some lovely flowers my guys sent me for my birthday.

Linda's Card Class 062108

Wow, it was so much fun and so many techniques to take this class. Linda designs the best cards and has them for all skill levels. I invited a group of friends so we had a nice day. See the slideshow for the cards that we made.

062108 Card Class

MIABA

These are make and takes from The Beaded Stamper. I am showing both sides of the items. Left to right are two moo cards, a piece made on a mouse trap (Yes, it was new!) and a slide mailer. The next row is a CD book and a fan. It was great fun to be there and enjoy everyone's company. There was much sharing and I was the happy winner of a DVD by Judy Belcher. I also won an assortment of goodies.

Lampwork beads

Are you willing to play with fire? I used a torch and made these beads in a class taught by Cliff Curtis. I wasn't expecting him as that wasn't the instructor I signed up with but he was very knowledgable and fun. Gayle was his assistant. I've known Cliff and his wife for years.

Charm bracelet

When we went to the castle there was a charm swap and here is a photo of the bracelet from that swap.

Mark and the goose

Our goose follows my husband all over the property. It tries to get ahead of Mark and lead the way whenever possible. If he enters a vehicle, the goose walks next to the vehicle. Wherever he is in the house, the goose is outside that area of the house! My filming is amateur so I hope you enjoy the video clip!

The Castle

ZNEart.com hosted a fun day for us. We arrived on Sunday at 12:30 pm on Oakland University's campus and followed the signs to Meadow Brook Hall. This was originally the home of the Dodge family. There are over 110 rooms in the place! Anyhow, we had a tour and then were served wine and other gourmet treats. Awaiting each of us at our tables were an array of goodies in our bags from various vendors. What FUN! We each began making our project using items supplied. It was fun to meet so many other ladies. Here is a group photo of most of us and a photo of what I made.

June Weekend at Puff's

On Friday, June 6, Sherry, Linda & I went to Puff's. Sherry had a detour due to a barn that was in the road. Apparently, there was a tornado! Anyhow, we had a bit of rain but made the three hour trek. We arrived at 10 pm and stayed up chatting and sharing new treasures with each other until midnight. In the morning we went to Pat Catan's (a store that has many crafting products) for about an hour...ran into another lady that was going to meet us at Puff's and then to Kroger for Sherry to get her angel food cakes.

We did a round robin with our tags. We painted them ourselves and then passed one to each person. We decorated both sides.

Puff also had her latest purchases from our last excursion on the couch so I took a photo of that.

Cynthia made a really cool theater.

Weekend of June 7 & 8, 2007

I'm headed to Puff's house in Sandusky, OH to art with friends. I drive there on Friday night and stay over so I'll not miss a thing on Saturday. We will be doing a round robin with tags so it should be fun! I can't wait to see what I end up with.

On Sunday we are trekking off to Oakland University in Rochester Hills, MI to The Castle. I can't wait to post what we'll make there!!!

Weekend with Claudine Hellmuth

Spent May 23 -25, 2008 with Claudine Hellmuth at Art in the Loft in Alpena, Michigan. The workshop space was fabulous! They provided a light breakfast each morning and coordinated ordering lunch for us each day. Lots of lighting and three people were there to assist us with anything we might need. Claudine Hellmuth taught us many collage techniques. The first day we mixed our own paint colors and used paint chips as our guide for the color. Then we did a round robin tag swap and had to match the color of the tags we were given. It was fun!







This is a peeled paint collage. My friend, Rianne Smarius, from The Netherlands said if they plan to drink, they ride their bikes as a ticket is so expensive. I made this collage in her honor.









On Saturday we worked on making backgrounds with the peeled paint, peeling paper, and textured paint. We also learned about composition and learned to do transfers with gel
medium, Magic Cover contact paper from Target.

This is an example of peeling paper. I glued the image with gel medium and then used masking tape to peel off certain areas.





















On the right is textured paint. It's not showing up well in the photo but it is in the lower right corner.




















On Sunday Claudine did a beeswax demo. She showed how to do a transfer on beeswax. I bought her new DVD and feel it was worth every cent! It has so many ideas and I have been doing beeswax for awhile myself and still learned quite a bit. She also showed us how to make poppets. My roommate, Puff, and I went back to our room and made quite a few of them.