Swap Items Ready for Mailing...

I had the most fun making these pieces of paper clothing for the "Hanging Up Springtime" swap with Gypsy Mermaid Life....

These tags are for the "St. Patrick's Day Tag Swap" hosted by The Tattered Rose.......

and this is the greeting card that will be included in my package to be sent for "Bella Enchanted's Easter Basket Swap". I love doing these swaps as it gives me an "assignment" that I might not have otherwise given myself creative wise AND I make FABULOUS new artsy friends from all over world!!!!! So a big SHOUT OUT for all those wonderful gals who put together these swaps. Thank You!!!!!!

My Firstborn Grandson's 8th Birthday Weekend...

When Xander and his Mom discussed his upcoming 8th Birthday and what kind of party he wanted to have, He said that he just wanted to spend the day with his cousin Blue.

He had a list a mile long of things to do. Xander is a party planner at heart and always hates to see the day end. The great thing was that Xander wanted to do the things on his list with ME! So He and Blue spent Friday night last week with us. That night we saw the movie "Spiderwick" and walked across the street, had dinner at a restaurant that was turning into a bar and dance club in 20 minutes, that kind of freaked me out. And then of course, we had ICE CREAM. Saturday we went to the Titanic Exhibit. Xander already knew so much about the whole story and many things about the boat and the iceberg. He had also asked me to find some sites on the computer so that He could research it some more before we left.

His next choice was the Masterpiece Replayed exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum. It was an amazing show with Cezanne, Corot, Degas, Delacroix, and Xander's favorite Henri Matisse. Xander also had already known several facts about these artists, their mediums and styles. The three of us listened to headphones about the artists. At the boys request, we listened and studied the art to ALL of the optional information on the tapes. Needless to say, the museum staff were amazed at the attention span and interest that my grandsons had about the art. I wanted to shout for JOY! My dreams coming true and feeling a little like "Auntie Mame". I can't wait till I can take them traveling!!!

Saturday night, the boys wanted to take a bath in my "sweet tub". Grandpa Fabulous called me in to take this picture. The boys are too grown up to have "a girl" help them anymore.

Sunday, Xander and Blue went to church with us. I LOVE showing my grandchildren off! Especially when they are sooooo handsome.
Sunday evening everyone came over to celebrate Xanders birthday with good food and plenty of presents. Life is Sweet...

Before I forget....

Two weeks ago, Grandpa Fabulous and I took three of our grandchildren to see their cousin EMMA in the play "The Hobbit". Emma played as DORI, one of the 13 Dwarfs who along with Bilbo Baggins "steal" back treasure that was taken from the Dwarfs by a dragon.

During intermission, Grandpa bought some raffle tickets to try to win a basket of toys along with raising $ for the theater group. It's funny that whenever I have won something, I have always had the feeling that I was going to win. And this time as we were waiting for the drawing, I thought to myself that I had better get my camera out because we just might win...AND WE DID!!!!! Remi, Xander and Nash got to take home a huge basket of games for their family to play together with. What fun! By the way, EMMA was FABULOUS in the play. She is one of those girls with an energetic personalitie and mesmerizing smile that you just are drawn to. We'll probably see her on Broadway, (or in the Olympics swimming. She Amazing!!!!)

A Birthday Party for Ava today!

Today we had a "Tea Party" for Ava's 3rd birthday. She invited her sister and two friends. I decorated. I had a blast getting ready for her party. It was so much fun turning our family room into a little cottage wrapped in lace and flowers...

I made this little "Birthday Fairy" of Ava. I just printed a photo of her in her Christmas dress in black and white and glued it onto chipboard and then black cardstock. I cut her out, glued her onto a Ball jar lid and glued on the embellishments. I was in heaven. I then placed her on a cake platter and topped it with a glass lid. It looks darling!
I set the kids table from their play room with china, got out my vintage hat and glove collection. The girls played with their Barbies and then we had a "Photo Shoot". While they ate lunch I printed the photos in black and white onto white cardstock and later they colored in the flowers and whatever they wanted with colored pencils.
After the girls all went home, I played with the photos a little more with Photoshop. Life can't get any better than this!!!!!!

A little bird told me....

As I was organizing my fun "china" a decided to put a few of my bird pieces together...

It's funny to see that both sets of salt and pepper shakers look to be the same age, but when you turn them over, you can see that the set on the left is old and the set on the right is new. (cork vs plastic)... that's all.

Look what I found !

All morning I have been cleaning and re-organizing. I am still not totally unpacked from our move into this house in June 07... So anyway, My oldest daughter is having a very small, but elegant "birthday tea party" at my house this Saturday for her 3 year old daughter. I am setting it up and of course she is bringing the food. Well, I have been collecting new and old china to use while entertaining. As I was unpacking these items and I had forgotten that I had stuffed these darlings in one of the boxes the day I had bought them at a thrift store in the "get ready to move crazyness". I love finding things like that, it's like Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, Yea! all together without expecting it!

"One Man's Trash is another ArtGal's Treasure"

My brother gave me this FABULOUS photo album for Christmas this year. He originally bought it at a thrift store for a "White Elephant" gift exchange. After looking at it for a while, he realized that I would want this wonderful piece of kitsch. I'M SOOOOO GLAD HE DID!

Can you fellow artsy/glitter/grunge girls believe that this album would be a JOKE gift ?!!!!!! I absolutely LOVE it! I treasure it among my MOST FABULOUS POSSESIONS EVER! I quess it is true, Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder.........thanks David!!!!

OK, So We're Wierd !!!

Yesterday, the Fam. and friends dressed up for a Valentines Party. Some of us met for dinner...

But the only place we could get in was IHOP'S. Even in that resterant we were "the attraction". Doesn't anyone like to dress up anymore ?!

Here's my youngest daughter Devan and her husband Preston dressed in what she labeled "Sophistication" ala Dinasty Days....

My oldest, Brooke pins on a buttonier on her husband Kevin. Good thing he wore a fake Chest because that pin was Big!!!! Ouch!

and lastly my husband and I. I had a much better outfit planned, but it just didn't work. Those PROM dresses at the Thrift stores are all size 0, I quess they are made for the gals in high school after all. DARN! But we had a great time dancing the night away (well till 9:30 pm as the babysitters had to go to school today, so there you go....) FUN, FUN, FUN and well worth the stares from people who don't know how to have a good time.

Travel Swap Goodies Recieved !!!!!

I received my very first swap items yesterday. When I signed up for the swap little did I know that the best thing that I would be recieving is a NEW FRIEND! Mama Jo was assigned to be my swap partner. She and I e-mailed and shared information about ourselves and we visited one anothers blogs. We started to realize that we have a tremendous amount of things in common! The whole experience for me has been FABULOUSLY positive and most importantly FUN. So, when I drove into my driveway yesterday, I saw this BIG BOX by my front door. My heart started beating faster and euphoria set in. I brought the box in and opened it.

As I opened the box, there, lying in a cushion of styrofoam packing (which I can use to blend soft pastels, smodge paint, etc.) this beautiful RED BAG waited patiently, it was too heavy to lift out of the box as the bag's bottom started to rip. (that's ALWAYS a good sign)...

Inside was a lovely note where Jolyn explained the reasons for each gift. 1. A Cosmetic Bag and Spa Items: a. A 15x travel mirror. (We are both close in age, so she understands the eyesight going bad. I only have a 10x mirror so this is a FABULOUS gift!) b. A Sea Sponge. (Jolyn wrote about a spa treatment she had in Turkey where she was scrubbed to death. Sounds good to me! I LOVE spa treatments!) c. FABULOUS LaSource Travel Sized Grooming Lotions and Potions that also included Hydrating Cream and a 60 Sec. Treatment for Hands (which I am going to open after I finish this entry. My hands are always DRY from artsy/craftsy explorations, which are a journey in itself...) d. The book 1,000 Places To See Before You Die which I have bought for 2 people and really wanted for myself (thank you!) e. An Expandable Duffle Bag to fit into my suitcase to bring home all those kitschey treasures that Jolyn and I both seem to think are FABULOUS! e. A Lovely Journal and Box of Note Cards of Italy that I will surely use and finally (as if all this wasn't enough) f. a Gorgeous Box of Godiva Chocolates! Needless to say, Jolyn went overboard, This is just tooooo much but I will enjoy everything. Thank you my new friend, YOU ARE FABULOUS!!!
You can visit my two new friends at Go With Jo @ http://jolynm.blogspot.com/ and the FABULOUS gal that coordinated the Travel Swap According to Kelly @ http://according-to-kelly.blogspot.com/

My FABULOUS Lamp

I found this FABULOUS lamp at an antique store and HAD TO HAVE IT! I then bought a new lampshade ( I could only find a new one at the size I wanted...) and ripped off the material. I then BEADED the shade with some Christmas bead garland that I got on clearence and some other plastic beads. I am "sort of happy" with the total outcome, but I "invisioned" stringing some wonderfully FABULOUS old beads and maybe attach an old brooch onto the shade. I'm going to do that one of these days..... (((( When are they going to fix the SPELLCHECK on Blogger????!!!! I don't know if "brooch" is spelled correctly or not, I tried it so many ways, it looks like a foriegn word to me now.. Now, is "foriegn" correctly spelled?!!! ))))

Sometimes I even impress myself!

Usually when I make something", I never seem to create whatever it is as fabulously as I envision it. There is always an element that I wish I had more skill in doing, or I wish I could afford the material I ideally wanted to use, or something just didn't work like I thought. But this time, the stars seemed to be aligned! I bought this FABULOUS OLD SLIP at a thrift store, immediately I thought of an ottoman. I had a old foot stool that was in one of my daughters rooms way back when that I bought from TARGET that we were no longer using. I first covered and stapled some batting over the whole thing. Then I sewed the pillow together with some fabric I had been saving and covered it over a piece of foam that I cut into a circle the same size of the ottoman. I then sewed the slip onto the pillow's bottom edge. The whole thing sits on top of the ottoman. It doesn't budge because the batting "holds" the fabric of the pillow in place. I can't tell you how much I LOVE this piece of furniture! It has been a great conversation piece and I like to imagine who was so FABULOUS to have bought this slip in the first place...

LOVE those Friends of Mine!

I had my annual Friendship Luncheon yesterday. I used to have it during the Christmas Holidays and just couldn't fit it in last December, so we changed the date. And what's better than a Valentines celebration with girlfriends !!!

We had a gift exchange and everyone brought fantastic salads and desserts. All I do is decorate! I sure do love those gals, I have known most of them for 25 years plus and they have always "got my back" thru and thru. Thank ya Sistas in my OLD HOOD !!!!!

Carma's Nursery

Chelsea and Dusty did such an amazing job in putting together their first born's nursery. They were given the crib by fabulous friend Sandy and the changing table by fabulous sister Hilari. Dusy painted them. He did such a good job that if you touch them, you would think that the crib and changing table are brand new! I made the curtains with Dingle Balls of course!

Chelsea found baskets and empellished them to coordinate the color scheme and She painted the frames, some new and some old cast offs. (I always seem to have a stash that the girls pick through.) ((I'm getting better at not buying every frame that is super discounted just because I can see a vision of it's purpose...I think I need therapy))

anyway, back to the nursary-

OG (Grandma Burke) made the bumper pad while Chelsea covered 32 buttons with coordinating fabric that she then attached to hold the batting in place. Unfortunatly, the rails of the crib cover all but a few. (Another lesson learned)

And a look into Carma's closet. Only the 0-3 months are hung so that NO FROCK is left unworn. That would indeed be sad. GREAT Job Chelsea and Dusty! FABULOUS work on creating that cute little Carma for Glamma Fabulous to adore!!!

Carma's FABULOUS Shoes

Baby Carma is wearing her "Skull Cap-like a Cholo". Isn't She "Da Bomb"!!!

EVERY fashionalble girl need shoes, a lot of shoes to go with all her FABULOUS outfits.

The Nursery will be unvieled tomorrow...

A Tribute to Nanny Openshaw

My Husband's dear Grandmother passed away last Sunday, January 27. (She would be 97 years old next month, the same age as Pres. Hinckley) (( Our family thinks they "High Fived" when they passed thru those Golden Gates)) We attended her funeral in Missouri. Nanny was one amazing lady! She loved her family, traveling, gardening and being outside. She was an avid quilter and she gave them all to family and friends alike. She was a Woman of Service. Nanny had 10 children, 70 grandchildren, 166 great grandchildren and 35 (with 10 on the way) great great grandchildren. She was fun, vivacious and truely wonderful. Nanny was an ordinary woman who led an extrodinary life. WOW!