SHARING VALENTINE ATC'S

Kimberly at  ARTJOYSTUFF sometimes offers up an "ATC Swap". I haven't participated for long, but since I have been involved, it has been great fun. Such a variety of talents and friendly gals.  Of course with it being Valentines month her swap involved sharing of 5 ATC Valentines. And I think there were 20 some involved.

These are the ones I sent on to share: I wanted to use more embellishments but because of mailing I omitted things with thickness.

Yesterday I received these from the others participating.

 From Marlene at  Uniquely Ella Adorable little image and precious red heart trim, some sparkle here and there and the tinyest little sentiment "Romance" Love the Neat tag too thick felt with a precious stick pin and pink flower.

Geralyn at Greetings from Geraly Quite Victorian, love all the flowers and the cute pink trim at the end of course I wonder what the 2 little girls are up to There is lots of sparkle here and 2 tiny hearts with an arrow..

 Dorthe at  Denlillelade Lovely little Vintage girl and the pretty trim around the heart, and what tiny little printing of the "Be my Valentine.  Topped with some aged trim and 2 buttons.  A little layer of tulle and ribbon  trim and pink flower

 Kimberly at ArtJoyStuff  A decorated little domino to the left and on her ATC are Two sweet kids sharing a hug, the circle of pink dots looks like maybe flower soft, and cupid tops the pretty colored frame and the great stitching around the edges.  Kimberly goes to lots of extra work/Joy to distribute all of these and always makes a fun exchange.  "THANKS SO MUCH KIMBERLY"

Erica at Zunky Chic  sent along this cute little ATC with script for the background, topped it with some lace and added  tiny sentiment  "Be Mine" on top The cutest little girl image and her sparkly white wings make it so precious..an aged strip of lace topped with a red heart.

I express my deepest gratitude to all of you as I know time and love were so involved with creating these for Kimberly's fun ATC swap.   I love each one of these and will treasure them. I have a valentine tree that they will be displayed upon.

Thanks for stopping by, Enjoy your week and all the fun it holds.

Raggedy Annes

Spent some of my morning dusting and cleaning the laundry room. It's decorated in my collection of Raggedy Annes. Some old, some created by friends, some gifts, and some that just captured my heart.

"I hope that you truly live life Now and not wait until,  until,  until .  .. .. . . . ..."


Have a great Monday.

SOME THOUGHTS FOR TODAY

Thursday when I took my parents on a little road trip, I found the nicest Hallmark Gift book on sale.  Lance Wubbels author of  "Dance While You Can" and "If Only I Knew" has this new little book  "I Wish For You"
It contains gentle reminders to Follow Your Heart.
I truthfully do not read many books, but I enjoy little sayings, quips and things to inspire. I might watch for the "Dance While You Can" sounds like great inspiration. 
So I plan to share a little saying  each time I post, so if you are wondering where these come from this would be the man. 


Many years ago, I did a lot of craft fairs with friends in Cedar Rapids, this is one thing my friend made and sold and I have truly enjoyed her Grapevine Tree for many, many years. It is redecorated every few months, depending on the holiday or the season of the year. For now at night it twinkles little red Valentines.

                   By day it just shows the red and reminds me of days gone by. 

For today "When your soul is weary and troubled. I hope you remember "the Lord is my Shepherd".       He'll lead you beside quiet waters.


Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your day to the fullest.

Some things Recylced or Upcycled.

Is there a difference in Recylced or Upcycled?

An Upcylced  Heart Box that I did last year

         This would be good refilled with some homemade cookies or filled with a variety of candy ..


I've been trying to get some Hearts done for Valentine's Day giving. Somehow I get distracted and just have no interest. But I had these dryer sheets laying around for some idea and decided to make some hearts.

One dryer sheet folded over gave me 2 hearts cut with my Spellbinders die.  I stuffed them with some silver tinsel to make them fuller.

I machine stitched with the red thread, added some felt cut hearts to one and a crocheted heart with a tiny sprig of flowers for the other and added a sparkly yarn for hanging.

                                                                       And they smell good!!


Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful day.


"May your love of life be the enchantment that turns insignificant things...into JOY"

Tiny Angels

I spent the morning sorting and putting things back in the storage area and some out for recycling so I can get my family room back in order. Projects seem to take so long to complete lately.
I spent yesterday with my parents. A wonderfully warm day for us to be out. Dad a had doctor appt an hour away so after that we had a wonderful Chinese lunch, did a little shopping and headed back home. They tire easily and I have to slow myself way down to help them enjoy this time away.
So this afternoon I needed a little time in my craft area.  Just can't seem to get going on the heart projects. I found some elements to work with a few "Corks"  I had saved up.

Other than the big pearl I used for the head, the rest are bits and pieces I had in my little treasure chest.
Quite simple and got me interested in doing a few other things. Having computer ups and down here today. So rather than be frustrated, will post tomorrow.
We may miss all the snow that is forecast for Iowa..some are expected to get over 12 inches. So that could be why our server is up and down.
Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your weekend.

"I hope you realize your life is truly your life....it belongs to you.
It is your story to writhe with love...Day by day, Line by line.   Write it well.

IT'S #139 WOYWW..

Well Julia at The Stamping Ground has over 100 people participating in this fun little Wednesday project.
Not familiar...hop over and get the deets.

Similar to last weeks, but I've added more crocheted hearts and more felt. Need to make a list of who and where these are going. Make a few little verses for the backside and start gluing..time will be here way to soon.
Took a "ME" day and went to the closest city...what a disappointment...shelves are bare, people doing inventory of nothing ....waiting to restock shelves. The best thing about it was I had some great Mexican food and it was 50 degrees..January was truly unusual for us this year.  Unusually wonderful.
Thanks for stopping by, may you all have a wonderful week. Happy February and Happy WOYWW.
Enjoy your peeps.

It's What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday #138 WOYWW

Wednesday comes faster than any other day of the week.  I guess it's the excitement Julia has created at the
STAMPING GROUND. We post our desk or workarea to her blog and peep about others workareas to see what's going on in other areas of  our world.   Want more info be sure to visit her blog and get all the details.
Thanks to all of you who took the time to stop by last week.

I had a great day of creating, didn't bother to bundle it all up for the picture of a nice neat desk. I need to finish some of these up and get on to a few other projects. Most of these are die cuts  from felt. The tiny crocheted hearts, I tried last week to refresh my crocheting skills. I did a post previous to this one on the YouTube site for the pattern etc, so you can check it out if interested.
The doily heart and red fabric and ribbon to the left are another plan!!!

This work table is to the left of the one above and I found a couple of cute ideas in my Country Living.I thought if I brought the magazine to my work area, I might remember to refer back to these projects.
Then there's a few corks I want to make into angels, but missing "Wings" and a "Big Bead"  for the head so have to wait until I can go shopping for supplies!!
 We had ice Tuesday AM and school delays Monday as on top of our 4/6 inches of weekend snow, we got some rain and then freezing temps to create quite the glaze for driving or walking.
But forecast is for a warm up in the 40's ??? in January ???  in Iowa???  Will take it no matter what.

   A view from inside of untouched 1st measurable snowfall in our yard.. Something quite soothing about it.
  Well thanks for stopping by, enjoy your WOYWW fun.

Relearning and Old Favorite

Good Morning!! I hope you are enjoying a bright and sunny day. It is so pretty here, we had our 1st measurable Snowfall and nothing has disturbed the fluffy stuffs designs. We are forecast for More snow and wind, so that could mean a Blizzard and Winter Snow Watches.  Hoping it's just more snow!!

Spent some of my free time trying to bring back my crochet abilities. With YouTube it's been pretty easy.

No two turned out alike. I used different types of yarn and thread, to practice with. The red has a sparkle thread going through it and is quite pretty on the fabric I plan to use in this project.
So next shopping trip I'll have to find some glitzy threads.  Thought they would make good embellishments for some Valentine projects. I really need some motivation with regards to creating.  Seems I just want to rearrange and clean. (how frightful)

The website is thru YouTube   LittleBirdieSecrets and she also has a simple one for a flower, I want to try.
Kind of like to have a few projects set up to  "Take With" .

Enjoy your weekend and thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW #137

My area is a mess...but I'm organizing again. I can share this with you as I participate in Julia's day of letting us share our Work area with a lot of other creative crafters from all over the world. You have to visit the Stamping Ground to see what all the fun is about.

Some tea-dyed paper towels, dryer sheets, and ideas not put to use as yet. I spent the better part of the past  week packing away Christmas and putting up some Valentine decor. 
I think it was Friday I called my sister to say a few prayers for me as my DH decided he would help me clean the storage area.  Believe it or not, it worked out well..We rearranged, removed lots of unused items, and we can now see the furnace and have a big walk way!!!! It took us 2 days and he was done, but I had lots of rubber maid containers to sort thru and rearrange. So I moved lots of things to be UPCYCLED to the craft area *what was I thinking..there is NO room in there..*  I think I need to RECYCLE to a trash can.         Wish me luck. 

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your week and Happy WOYWW visiting. 

Wonderful Mail.

For sometime I have been a follower of  The Funkie Junkie blog.  Linda always has so much going on. She designs for several great places and recently set up an Etsy Boutique with lots of great items.  I just purchased her new Valentine Kit, and when it arrived I was so excited. The items are wonderful little bits and bobs of  shabby goodness, with which  to do some great creating.  ha, ha , I'll no doubt hoard them away ! ! !

 Her little Thank You card and creativity with the Shabby Hearts

 I love this little 6x6 box that contained all the items. She had it so beautifully decorated. She makes lovely  stick pins and handmade felt flowers and dyes the crinkled seam binding

Adorable little cards and images, some Venice Lace Hearts and Flowers,Cameo, resin heart ,filigree metal, and much more.  I truly love it all.  Thanks so much Linda, you help get those creative juices flowing!!!

Check out Linda's great fun Here  She has much better pictures and descriptions.

Some Thoughts for Today

I found this on Pinterest

Stay tuned when I have time I have to show you some "Little Treasures"  I received in the mail. I want to take some pictures and a busy weekend it has been.

Enjoy it...we missed the snow, hip hip hooray!!!!

It's WOYWW #136...

It's kinda like here in the States "Here's Johnny"  way back when.  Now it's really "Here's Julia" and her blog fun at the Stamping Ground. Not familiar...hop over to her well designed fun and hop on the band wagon. It's a world of happy peepers.

Still quite tidy..I've made a few ATC's for a Valentine Swap and will share them with you after they are passed out.. So far I haven't even spent much time shopping for NEW items for this event.. I made a New Years idea in my head!!!  use what I got please.


 I must apologize to all of you for not commenting this past week, (will try to make the rounds this time and check out last weeks also,)but my DH whisked me away on a surprise little get away, and the laptop was not able to be used in our motel. Total Disappointment, but I couldn't say anything.. He just wanted to take advantage of (no not me)but the unseasonable wonderful weather, which makes traveling in Iowa in winter sometimes impossible very far away from home. 


Upon our return..I've had lots of body aches..way too much walking and so I have been dealing with DOMS, Relief  is soaking in hot water and popping Advil and time.  My son says 3 to 5 days recovery and I should be getting a massage and continue to walk!!! I can only shuffle about so how's that going to work? This age thing is not so fun.

Thanks for stopping by. It was about 57 degrees here today with LOTS of sunshine and tonight a FULL moon..  Have a wonderful week.