Blog, I'm still here...

I'm noticing how I don't post for a time and then I have lots to post.  I just can't seem to make it a habit to post daily or even every other day.   I'm on my laptop daily but just don't have the right state of mind to post.  I'm working on this...2011 resolution?? 

The cookie exchange went very well this year.  I always make sugar cookies.  Here's my packaging.  I should of photographed all the cookies!  This was my last year of organizing the exchange.  We've had the same group of seven or so of us for the past 15 years.  

Next year I think I'd like do a baking day with a few close friends.  Hopefully, one with a big kitchen.

The christmas crowns are recycled material...commercial size empty toilet paper rolls!  The janitor saves them for me at work.

Our christmas cards got done.  They were a huge project this year.  I had a million little steps , drawing, painting, paper gluing, more painting and glue and printing.  I loved the way they turned out.

I also finished wedding invitations for my friend Casey.

 Printing....well let me tell you how I stressed on printing.  I set a unreal deadline and stayed up too late and made a major printing mistake!  I printed the wrong zip code on the response card THREE times!  I was way tired and should of stopped. I tried to cover it up by making some address labels, can you say "cheesy".  So the only solution was to reprint....well I didn't have cardstock.  I remembered my friend, Melissa had the same card stock for her wedding invitations.  Bless her heart she gave me enough paper to finish Casey's.  

Cutting was so time consuming cuz they had to be perfect.  I was so OC about it.

This yellow thingie is the best tool ever!  I got it at a rubberstamp/scrapbook convention and thought I spent too much for it.  But, it's worth every dollar!  Made the assembly so much easier and quick.

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Final invitation came out so nice.  Very pleased with the final product.  They're packaged and mailed!  

I have some photos of Christmas tamale making and sparklers.  I have some photos of baby girl, Marisol and nephew Robert's Texas Tech basketball game.  Oh and more photos of babies and puppies.  I'll save them for tomorrow.  

December Birthday Month

It's that fun time of the year....my birthday and Christmas!  While I was in Nebraska my niece and I decided we needed to throw ourselves a birthday party.  We've never had a party together...oh...we have the same birth date!  The cake was special ordered and I must admit it's my first and only "Susan cake" .  It was both chocolate and vanilla!  Yummie, too.  My niece is going to be 18!!!  Me, well let's say I quit counting.

Cookie exchange

Cookie exchange invitations... started with a emply spool.

Added cookie exchange information on a strip of christmas themed scrapbook paper. 

Added a eyelet, circle and string to the end of the strip. 

Glued one end of the paper strip to the spool and wrapped it

 and then wind the sting around the eyelet circle piece. 

hello blog

Haven't typed at you in some time. It's a good thing it's Monday which means it's only Monday and I found a mintue to type....I still have the rest of the week to update!

 I finished up some senior photos for my niece, Chanel...she's beautiful. 

It was tough shoot.  It was so cold outside we had to go inside and lighting was a challenge and I just couldn't get a good focused photo.  Here's a peak..

Treking

I've been busy with family stuff in Nebraska.  I thought I would find time to hit some thrift stores, vintage shops or some cool art stores in between but not so lucky.  Didn't even use my camera much.  But stay tune I'll see what I can do....
How's your turkey plans going, by the way....

One last post for the night

food for thought...

what would you put on your bucket list?
my friend and i talked about this last night
my list needs "do-able" and "impossible"
i think some of my "do-able" haven't been done .... out of fear
as we talked i realized i've done some pretty cool impossible things already
make a list of things "done", too.

what to do with apples?

 make a apple pie, of course   pie crust came out so nice. 

(only I should of used crisco not the bargin shortening). 

i haven't made a pie in years!!!

a tidbit about me...

i won a cherry pie bake off when i was a kid in 4H

and the judges were quite impress with my pie crust



i don't eat pie, ever
tom ate the whole thing!



I have goodies left over from the craft fair....interested???

here's some holiday gift ideas

shop early!

I have trees....



Various garlands 

 "we wish you a merry christmas"  "silent night holy night" "deck the halls with bells and holly" and lots of holiday theme flashcards tags -  "noel" "jingle bells"  "merry"  "peace on earth"

the tags can be used as gift tags, ornaments, decorations on a table

  

  A number of art prints, 5x7 matted size 8x10

it's not a problem to send you close up photo

of the prints i have available

 Sticky note pads featuring my artwork

all you have to do, is email me bigbrownbug@cox.net

Did I tell you about the dress?

This is Melissa's Dress!
It's perfect, don't you think?
She looks adorably beautiful
I'm so happy she shared this day with me

Life in the jobi time lane

First of all, as usual it's late late night when I'm posting.  My puppy, Maximus is so excited and hyper and will not leave Winston dog alone!  Omg, all I want is some peace & quiet. 
I don't even know where to start.  I've been having computer issues for  two months.  Desktop got virus, it's working fine as long it's not connected to the internet.  I back up almost everything to an external harddrive, but I really didn't lose much.  Then my laptop harddrive went wackie and froze up and I mean froze up!  Luckily, when I first purchased the laptop I didn't want to use Vista so I installed a new harddrive with XP.  I was smart enough to keep the original harddrive.... I switched out the drives ...wholla it worked!  It took days to install all of the Vista updates. lol   The laptop is working fine but can't handle all the stuff I need it to do.  So I finally broke down and purchased a new laptop and I'm loving it. 
Dang it .... my puppy just chewed up my last and I mean my last pair of flipflops!!!Should of known, he was being too quiet.
I can't seem to load any photos, ugh.  Time for bed, I guess.

It's late and I have more to share...

Maximus had a visit with the vet today

if you now what I mean....

I can hear him in the bedroom,

he must be a little uncomfortable

since the pain medicine wore off.

poor baby boy...

I have to go mother him some....

I'll post more soon.

craft fair

How'd it go? you ask....

When I arrived I found my table stuck back in a corner...

ah not a good thing = bad energy flow = no customers.

I was able to switch with my friend & his wife.

It turned out to be a good thing for both of us, they needed the extra space the corner offered and I was near the doorway, being one of the first tables people could stop at.

The post-it sticky notes were popular "believe" ones sold the most.... The pencil business card was so clever and worked well!

I made the small journal so I could take emails and orders and it turned out to be popular, I plan to make more.

I sold several angel art prints, alittle bit of everything else, magnets, trees, tags, & garlands.

I loved talking about my stuff and how I made it and how I can customize pendants and art prints.

Another thing about the craft fair was meeting

all the neat crafters.

I bartered for a few things, too.

Ended up with the coolest holiday cigar box purse,

a "one of kind" cake stand and the most delicious cupcakes.

It's an exciting time

Today I'm participating in a craft fair. I've been working hard to have some of my stuff ready. It's a second job! I love it, though!! I haven't done a craft fair in a really really long time. The last one was so awful. It was downtown in a concrete courtyard on a very sunny & hot day. The crowd was in a buying mood whatsoever. This time it's different, I don't care if nothing sells, I won't base my talent on lack of sales....I'm gonna have fun, period.

Here's some of the stuff I put together....Tell me what you think???

These are post-it note pads using my original artwork.

Jewelry pieces. I decided not to make the necklaces but only the pendants pieces to show the work and then customize them to the person buying the pendant.

Matted prints of my artwork. I scanned then printed the artwork. I embellished them to individualize them...no two alike.

I lifted this idea from a Somerset magazine. It's flashcards made into a garland. I have fun making these but they were so time consuming! I figured they can be used to decorate a gift box or bad. Or used as tree decoration.

This was my idea for a business card. I plan to hand out to anyone interested in my stuff. I broke my electric pencil sharpener....so let's hope I made some cash to replace it....lol

Magnets

Decorative trees. Fun to make but once again very time consuming.

I bought a small journal and altered it with a painted angel. I plan to have anyone interested to give me their email address and better yet to give me an order for a custom piece

I'll take photos of the craft fair and my table. I'll let you know how it went.

Where have I been??

I've been crazy busy. Got lots done this past couple of weeks. The margarita party was a success and my friends were so kind to feed my creative soul. I'm heading back into my craftroom to play....wait til you see what I'm up to. Wanna share a passion tea lemonade? Wanna paint?? Wanna solder??? Let's go!

What a day

one of those days....

breaking things..

messing up things..

.

not sleeping thing...

not feeling well thing...

outa synch thing...

To Do List ...

Painted hall bathroom!!! It's no longer deep purple, it's now a sweet sea glass blue.

I can't believe how much bigger it looks, so weird.Found a can of wall color paint and touching up all over the rest of the house. Finally, finally putting up curtains on the window in our bedroom, love them, too. Bought a dresser at Ikea and have it assembled and filled with my stuff. Finally replacing the dog hair magnet curtains on the patio doors with some cool graphic ones. Repaired the tear in our leather couch!!! Tom painted the new beam in the patio in 105 degree heat...he's a trooper.

Oh yeah I also got the margarita party invites finished and most have been given out!!!

That's gonna be a great time, can't wait!

What do you do on a hot day?

This is what you do for goodness sakes!

you find some friends

you dress them up

wedding attire of course

you get a camera

scuba gear

and you all JUMP in a pool!!!

Okay, if any of you know me...I'm tad bit afraid of water even pool water even only 6 feet deep pool water and I float and can't sink to the bottom at all...

So you wonder how this worked out for me...

Then comes a friend

who is in town from San Jose

who is a fish

who scuba dives

who has a underwater camera

who loves an adventure

who is willing to help out her water fearing friend

Add two friends who are getting married April 2011

who went with a great idea for their "save the date" announcements

This is what you get ...............

a blow you outa the water fun day!!!!

One of the funnest and coolest photoshoots ever - even better it was for Melissa.

Laugh with me...

I was remembering my first day on the job...Chesterfield building, red-haired Jackie and Jeff D our trainers on a very hot humid day. My first summer experience of the monsoon season.

I think there were 16 of us "newbies". I'm not sure how many are still working.

Of course the talk is always about retiring...

but for now there will be no talking of retiring

only what fun can we have today.

Tomorrow is the day

August 18, 1986 was the day
August 18, 2010 is....
The first day of my twenty-fifth year of my job

I will celebrate it
I will embrace it
I will enjoy it
I will find joy in it
I will laugh
I will cry some, too
I will smile (a lot)
I will bounce
I will dance in circles
I will twirl til I get dizzy
I will shout it out
I will take my photo
I will eat something sweet
I will drink a passion tea lemonade
I will play my favorite songs
I will watch the sunset
I will hug Tom & my dogs
I will buy something cool
I will scream with joy
I will keep praying
I will love
I will be kissed
I will make a big splash
I will wish upon a star
I will...

More posts to come....

Did the coolest "SAVE THE DATE" photoshoot!
It will blow you out the water......
I have a new toy to show you....
Watched the meteor shower with my three favorite boys....

Stay tune................
What's going on in your world???

She must be a princess?

She walked into my studio and was in awe

She wore the tiara

she smiled when she saw herself in the mirror

She's growing up...aaahh

I keep a photo library of her life....
and this day needed to be documented

She's a freshman, heading to high school...

dang where has the time gone?

She's awesome!

If I would of had it my way we would of parked the car

followed her to her first class

but I controlled myself and watched her walk away

Angela's Birthday

Had so much fun making her birthday card...

she loves blues

Key ring with my special metal charms

Have Blue Suitcase Will Travel & Craft

Every trip I take I bring along crafting supplies....

this time I stuffed it with painting supplies

The lake side cabin was a great place to paint.

The space was soothing, the colors were calming

and the view was beautiful.....

greens, blues and browns of nature

The painting is far from finished but what a great start

with all the inspiration coming from the view