Saturday, July 31, 2010

Welcome To A Gilding: Day One

The sun isn't even up yet, and just the slightest nudge from my dog Ollie (this Saturday morning) sent my mind from a sleep state, dreaming of a perfect creative day of crafting and flea market shopping, to an awake state and trying to calm my present excitement for the "Gilding: Day Two."
So, here I am blogging when I should be sleeping. I see a crash about 6 p.m. today, maybe not, but maybe so!
A Gilded Life started in the Palomar Hotel here in Dallas where we all met to catch our luxury bus ride to Canton Trade Market Days. The gals gathered...
There were squeals and hugs for those gals who haven't seen each other for a while...
Then we all gathered on our luxury bus with our lovely host
(shown here a bit later in the day)

Isn't she adorable?!
And she pampered us but good!
The luxury bus ride had Starbucks coffee and homemade scones,
free beauties too. notice the gorgeous flower on Shea's hat?
Her mom made all of us one!
And there was a gorgeous cell phone case
(I'll share that later)
I felt so special as her guest, but we're moving down the road, so let me keep moving too...
Those of us who participated in the bag swap has to get down to the serious business of swapping!
I don't mean to confuse you here, but I thought I'd thrown in between the pictures of some of the Canton Shots I got from one beautiful shop
(thank you so much for letting me snap a few pictures!)
The bags began emerging...

(and now a beautiful flea market vignette)

And the bags keep becoming revealed in all their glory!

Ahhh... you know what I'm saying...
the colors, the chandelier, the gorgeous mirror...
I love the look of the gals watching on here as Kim Caldwell
opens her box...
can you say anticipation?!

Here is Kim's bag...

I again am in L-O-V-E with this shop...

Here is my sweet and adorable bag partner, Heather Ales ....

Her partner made her a lovely bag, don't you think?!
And here is the sweet bag Heather made for me!

Oh, wow..

Let me share just a few quick pictures of our catered lunch
at The Gypsy Pearl in Canton...


it was just lovely, and so were our hosts!

Yes, more beauties!

On the way home we were treated to homemade chocolate chunk cookies that Carrie made
just for us
(and spent two hours wrapping up pretty to present!)

Thanks, Carrie!
You're sweet
(and I LOVE the necklace YOU made too!)

Well, time's a tickin' here this morning

and now it's time to prepare for Day Two of
being Gilded!
I hope you enjoyed Canton!

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Ready, Set, Go!

Just a few short sleep hours away, and I'm off to A Gilded Life's party!
I was able to spend a little bit of time gilding up a gift bag for my swap partner...
and...

These finishing touches are usually the details that are the most difficult to accomplish
Time: There is just not enough!
Having only ONE swap to do made this final detail happen!
I EVEN found time today to play with our childhood friend
Shrinky Dinks!
I created a necklace for myself to wear this weekend...

It turned out great and it was so much fun to watch through the oven door
to see it curl and shrink!
TTYS, my bloggie friend!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Getting (ready to be) Gilded!

I’m starting to do the happy dance again as I’m very close to the beginning of the creative fun of A Gilded Life's "Art of Communion" Art Retreat here in the Dallas area!

I signed up for one of the swaps, a messenger type bag for your partner to use when we all climb aboard the party bus..

atote2                           (Well, I HOPE it’s a little more plush than this one! EEK!)

We’re heading out Friday morning bright and early to First Monday Canton Trade Days.

You DO need to begin EARLY here in Texas when the date on the calendar says July 3oth!

You can just IMAGINE what the temperature might reach by, say, noon! I’m going to be ready to rock ‘n’ roll though! My Canton cart, my comfy sneakers, a “rag” to wipe off the sweat and away we go!

I just had to share the messenger bag I’ve created for my partner! I’m full of…

atote3                                        That my partner will like what I’ve created.

                                         I formed an image in my mind and just set forth to create it!

                                        First I scrounged through my images, and when I saw this image, I knew

                                                         it was what I should use, no doubts at all!

atote 003a                             I used the packing tape method to transfer her and then stitched her in place on

                                                                             my altered book bag background. 

                                                                                     Ethereal, mysterious, other-worldly…

atote 003        I knew my image needed this Pablo Picasso quote too….This is on the inside flap of the bag.

         The colors are from watercolor crayons and the doilies created with glimmer mist and inks…

                                                       Let’s show it off properly now, shall we?

atote 006                                      And the backside…

atote 005 

                                A beautiful iron-on from Michaels!

atote 007                                    And I free form sewed a strip of an old lace curtain for the strap!

                        See, this is why I keep so many “goodies” on hand (message for my husband! Ha!)

                                                   I’ll not be back to share more until Monday or Tuesday!

                                                             Have a great rest of the week and weekend!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Really beautiful Pink Saturday

My husband said something REALLY nice to me tonight. He said, "you really need to slow down." Seems odd, I know, but I'm always busy, mostly working six days a week. I 'think' I may be a workaholic, so I do appreciate when I do allow myself to relax, and my recent creative weekend at Paper Cowgirl was just fantastic to this end!
I am SO behind though showing all the swaps I received, and I'm embarassed to say that because I received overwhelmingly beautiful swap goodies from all of the (six or seven) swaps I participated in!
So PINK SATURDAY is going to be a day to share more of what I received.
First I want to share my Vintage Box Hat Swap AND the beautiful BOX it was delivered in!
Let's start with the box, why don't we?
EVERY surface was decorated so beautifully! I love the glittery, sparkly S!

The quotes were just PERFECT!

What a strong woman figure was Eleanor Roosevelt!

How true is that?!
And look at all the work my swap partner put into even the inside of the box!

And of course, my LOVELY hat that now adorns my dress figure in my craft room...

What a great surprise was this beauty!
Another swap I participated in was the Beauty Sash Swap, you can a peek here,
but I'm not even sure if I can do this beauty justice in this post, but I will try...
Can you see above the peek of the underside, YES, it was professionally lined and
beautifully sewn together!

It also adorns my vintage party dress and I just MUST show you different angles of it,
I think you'll be OOHing and AHHHing too!

My swap partner was concerned I might not like it!
Can you imagine?!
It's utterly to-die-for!

The PEARLS, the DREAM, the LACE, the SILK...
Yes, I can hear your sighs...

The removable glitter crown with a tissue paper flower from pattern paper...
And just one more view...

And now I'd like to show you a very original gorgeous cuff that was in our free goodie bags
for signing up for the weekend...

I'm not quite sure if it was a burlap, but I think so!
Very pretty!
Here it is on my outstretched (ink stained fingers)...

Love it too! I have a lovely cuff from a cuff swap too, but I'll save that one for another day.
I thought you might have noticed the background pretties, so I thought I'd give you a closeup of them too!
My daughter found this at good old Hobby Lobby on clearance.
I thought it needed a few vintage buttons...

And this pretty lady was from a past trip to an antiques shop in Waxahachie, I think it was, in fact, the
previous year's Paper Cowgirl Retreat!

That is all for today, gals!
I hope you'll vist my dear friend LISA at PupyLov
this Pink Saturday, as if you've ever had a comment left for you from Lisa
you'll know just how SWEET she is!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Choosing LOVE

apretty61 Each time my children have reached a certain age in their lives, I began wondering, worrying, inquiring, praying for them to find love (in all the right places, that is!)

Because…

atruth                                                                                     Mighty 2 Save 

I do agree this is true. I pray this would not be their choice – to choose unhealthy love, unhappiness or to choose love for any other reasoning other than that they’re in love!

It can happen though.

1025 001 It’s difficult when you’re young like my 21 year old is to know for sure what true lasting love looks like when you still don’t even know yourself.

My simple advice has been that your future “love” should be as sweet as your dogs…

aheart11

                         And if the “love” you choose doesn’t LIKE dogs, well there’s a sign! Ha!

     You should also remember the essence of pure love, such as in this case, her love of being

                                                                      Aunt Katie to our Madison…

akatiea                                             Having fun with Madison’s Mommy, Megan on your left

                                         and Aunt Katie getting the smooshie kiss in too on vacation! 

                                           Our hearts are so delicate and need to be protected and nurtured…

aheart1                                                                           Mary Ruffle

I wish I could save heartache for my children, but then I suppose there’s no way to grow if all in life and love comes so simply…

Lessons learned give us the gift of wisdom in our lives…

aheart2                                                                       Mary Ruffle 

My wish for my children, as you wish for yours, that they are divinely happy every day in the simple joys of life…

aheart5                                                                              Mary Ruffle

That the Love they choose encourages, inspires and supports them to move to becoming more of

the genuine person God created them to be….

aheart10                                                                              Mary Ruffle

aheart9

I worried for my firstborn as I do my youngest, and I remember to have faith

as in the words of my daughter Megan, Fairytales do come true…

aheart12                                                      Megan and Oliver said “I do” August 4, 2007

                               Yes, a Fairytale came true, but it only remains through a dedication

                              to grow and the learn and to compromise, to forgive, to forget, to enjoy,

                              to laugh with, to spend time with, to hold close those whom we love and

                                         Who love us back… Suzie Button

aheart13                                                                        Love Midori

”I love that you get cold when it’s 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you’re looking at me like I’m nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it’s not because I’m lonely, and it’s not because it’s New Year’s Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.

When Harry Met Sally, 1989       via Love Midori