groovy stuff

January 20th was the 21st anniversary of the day hubs and I met ... twenty one years ... just flew by!

WHOOSH! 

On Tuesday, I mailed my first mini sampler off to my partner, Marti, in Linda's swap, A Swap For All Seasons. Per the good old USPS, Marti will be receiving it today so I'm going to share a little bit with you.

I found this saying/quote online to use on my card for Marti.

A bit of a peek at my sampler for Marti.

I had so much fun making it for you Marti!

I know it sounds hokey but I love being creative, it's where I feel true joy and feel connected. I hope to do lots more this year!

Happy almost weekend, my crafty friends!

catching up

Even though we were sick, we had a whirlwind of activity over Christmas week. I think we've been paying for it ever since though - hubby's cold morphed into a bad sinus infection and cough and I've got zero energy and allergies. We've been like sloths ever since.

We did drag ourselves out for New Year's Eve dinner though. We went to the same wonderful place we went to on Xmas Eve, this time for their NYE Sushi Tasting Menu. Eight super duper tasty tasty sushi's. All vegan. YUMMERS! They gave us a hat and a tiara as a gift this time ... and took the worlds worst photo of us which will not be seeing the light of day EVER, hahhahhahahha.

 

I just remembered, I don't think I ever mentioned that we saw a performance of Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey a few weeks ago with two English actors and ... PUPPETS!!!

And I'm so excited! I'm participating in a year long swap hosted by lovely Linda of A Swap For All Seasons. We are to make a mini fabric sampler for our partners each month, which we can ultimately make into a garland/banner when the year is through, if we choose to. How fun it will be to have a garland of 12 hand sewn samplers! 

This is quite a challenge for me but I'm really excited and looking forward to it. Started pulling down some boxes of fabric yesterday and I'm rather overwhelmed with ideas at the moment. My mind is off and running and going a million directions LOL. Anyway, I'll hope to share my progress with you over the coming year. 

Happy New Year and new adventures to you!

a crafty happy holidays to you

Santa's Workshop is chugging along over here ... 

making Christmas cards today!

thanksgiving happy mail culmination and woohoo celebration of thankfulness of lovely crafty friends

sick as a noodle over here ... cough cough hack hack ... sort of like the walking dead, except it's more like the barely moving ...

Hubby teaches elementary school, the Petri dish of new and old fashioned viruses. No escaping the germs of 32 children - each armed with a nuclear arsenal of ickyness hahahhaha - and bringing it home to the wifey.

So we had a different holiday vacation week than we had planned - the hubby leading the way with the dastardly bug and then my being walloped and flattened by it on Friday. Each of us in denial, swearing it was bad allergies, it must be allergies, until the coughing. Will it ever end??!

We went out to dinner as planned on Thanksgiving (we were going to forfeit our deposit if we didn't, so decided to give it a try), my poor husband coughing into a handkerchief throughout the evening. I was just at that tipping point of feeling weird and low energy, but thinking I might just not get it. HAH! Take that Sally! Neener neener the weasely bug said to me. 

Smacked me down early morning on Friday.

But that's enough whining! 

Time to report the arrival of more thanksgiving happy mail (above)!  Vivian's adorable card arrived, accompanied by the cutest thanksgiving stationery. Thank you thank you thank you Viv, love everything, so charming and so very sweet of you.

And here are the cards I made for everyone ... and I enclosed a couple fall leaf die cuts from paper I watercolored and some acorns in each ... I had so much fun!

Thanks enormous bunches dear Pam, Patty, Debbie, Joyce and Viv! I had the best time making cards for you guys and eagerly looked forward to the arrival of yours, like a little kid. It was so great the way it worked out, everyone's darling cards arriving on a different day, bringing smiles across the miles, again and again.

Hope you all enjoyed yourselves too!

Happy week to everyone!

number four thanksgiving happy mail and a surprise visit from Santa

Oh my!!! Gosh, what fun this is! Everybody's card is arriving on a different day and gifting me with fun every day - it's like a week of birthdays.

Today Joyce's (Scrap for Joy) card arrived ... well, actually a package arrived. Along with Joyce's so very adorable card (and sweet note), Joyce made me the cutest Christmas decoration to place on my mantle. It's so clever and darling dear Joyce and so very generous and sweet of you to make it for me, I'm overwhelmed. (I think you must be a super duper multi-tasker Joyce, accomplishing all of that while having just recently moved to a new house, in a new state, and not unpacked your craft room yet WOW!) I'll be hunting for my plate stand right away so I can enjoy it.

Thank you thank you thank you, so very much Joyce!

Once again I apologize for being a complete knucklehead with a camera. I'm so sorry - my dining room table is the only open space in the house and it's flooded with light - normally would be a good thing but not for taking photos.

Happy happy, it's almost here, Thanksgiving! So much to be grateful for, my lovely crafty and dear friends, thank you for all the smiles.

thanksgiving happy mail on its way

Hi Pam, Vivian, Debbie, Joyce and Patty! I got your cards mailed this morning WOOHOO! Hope you enjoy them - I had so much fun making them for you. Thanks so much for letting me practically beg you into making a card for me LOL. You're A+ good sports and I so appreciate it!  

 

Happy early Thanksgiving!

thanksgiving card exchange - anybody want to play? EDITED

EDITED TO ADD: So sorry! I neglected to say that your cards are to be signed by you and mine will be signed by me.  I hope everyone still wants to play? I wanted to receive some real mail in the mail again, especially at holiday time. Let me know if you've changed your mind (which is perfectly Okie Dokie with me, I understand) or if you have any questions. Thank you!

Having fun today playing around making Thanksgiving cards!

I was so sad and depressed when I only received one Halloween card in the mail this year and I thought HEY! Maybe some crafty blogger friends and acquaintances also miss snail mail and might want to exchange handmade Thanksgiving cards??

Anybody feel like making and exchanging Thanksgiving cards with me?

I know I can make five (possibly more) ... is there anyone out there who'd like to receive a handmade Thanksgiving card from me and in exchange, make a card for me?

Please leave a comment on this blog (which I'll receive in my email, all comments are moderated due to spam and robot comments).

I'll pick the first five people who comment, to make cards for. Remember, you will be making me a card too.

I would like everyone (if anyone wants to play along pretty please) to receive their cards by the latest, on Saturday November 22nd (to ensure timely Thanksgiving savoring and warm and fuzzy feelings) - so lets agree to mail by approximately Monday November 17th - Wednesday November 19th, depending on how close you are to me in Los Angeles. You never know how long USPS will take these days, it can take one day or five days for regular mail to reach me.

Let the card making begin! (I hope I hope!)

Sally

1959 pack-o-fun halloween crafts

Cleaning house and going through boxes over here. I found this Pack-O-Fun book from 1959 with this cute Halloweenie stuff for you!

a spooky swap for all seasons

I received the most deliciously devilishly spooky package from my partner Debbie, of Kitten Creates in today's mail. It was so much fun participating in Linda's A Swap For All Seasons --- I could kick myself from here to China for not doing so earlier.

I opened the outer mailer and inside was this mailer with Halloween images stamped all over it. And then I opened it up and my gosh, what spilled out --- stuff kept coming and coming. See what I mean? Holy Toledo!!!  Thank you so much Debbie for this Halloween extravaganza!

Debbie made me this great card and tag - front

card inside and tag back


and look at this coffin load hahahhaha
of creepy crafty supplies!!!











Thank you thank you thank you Debbie,
I'm going to have so much fun playing with all of this!

and what I made my partner for ASFAS

As my mom used to say, "sorry for chewing my cabbage twice", but I thought I'd share about the first half of my very first outing as a participant in Linda's A Swap For All Seasons. (So sorry this is repetitive - I like to keep this online record of what I've made for myself as a kind of diary and also to share with you guys.)

I was given Deb, of Garage Sale Gal as my "recipient" of a handmade Halloween card and tag and also orange destash items.

I knew that Deb likes vintage things.  I found two vintage photos in my mom's family photo album and thought they'd be fun to use for witches on my card and tag.  I had fun looking through my things for orange crafty supplies for Deb.

(Sorry! I thought I got okay photos but now I see they're pretty sad. ARGH! Deb has posted and you can see more on her blog.)

Thanks for bearing with me on what must seem like the hundredth post about this swap LOL!

I don't really have another thing to post because this has been "the summer that wasn't"! With my back injury and subsequent eye trauma, I haven't done a thing except watch TV and movies, read, (doing this swap was the one fun thing) ... that's about it. BORED OUT OF MY MIND.

Oh! I lied! We did go out to eat a few times recently and a couple of weeks ago we went and saw the Hal Roach Studio exhibit (Laurel and Hardy, Harold Lloyd, Little Rascals) at the Hollywood Museum. Tiny exhibit but lots of fun. Again sorry, terrible awful pathetic photos from my phone ...

I had to go back to the eye doctor again last Thursday for increased light flashes in my eye again --- she said no PT for at least another month to be safe, maybe two.  Woe is me. 

Everything seems to involve my bending my head up and down, big NO NO --- she said to think of my eye as a snow globe when shaken --- I can't do my embroidery, or rug hooking or even sort the dreaded filing or carry on with my reorganization and purging plan. WAH!

the broom has landed

I had the fun of joining in Linda's A Swap For All Seasons for the very first time this month. We were to make a Halloween card and tag for our partner and also include some orange goodies for them as well.

I had a great time making my card and tag for Deb, of Garage Sale Gal and finding some fun orange things in my stash for her.

(I just heard from Deb that she's received her package so it's okay if I babble a wee bit and give a teeny tiny sneak peek of the extras before she posts about it.)

Happy early Halloween! 

downton day 3

I'm rather pooped out over here, yet another 98 degree day is forecast for Los Angeles (I wrote this in the morning, it may be even hotter - I know there are two new fires in So. Cal. as I write this) - so sick of the heat. It's become oppressive and depressing in its frequency. We never had a winter and now we've had no spring, it's summer all the time. argh. my air conditioning is struggling. sizzle sizzle. grumble grumble.

Day 3 was our second and last day of classes. In the morning we made a lovely keepsake fabric journal with Karen Valentine. I think I will make mine about the the event.

 
I haven't finished mine (goes without saying!) - lots of bedazzling and frou frou needed yet and of course memories of the weekend.

After a yummy lunch, in the afternoon we made the most charming "dress" garland, with Pamela Huntington. So cute!

Of course nowhere near the finish line on these ... most of us stopped early, wanting to add our own touches from home. Looking forward to pulling out supplies and playing and doing lots of foof foofing to my little dresses.

Day 4 was an all day tour of flea markets, shops, etc. in So. California. Since I have a mountain of stuff to dig out from under as it is, I decided not to go along and the likely possibility of coming home with more.  I am not to be trusted in a shop LOL, no sirree. 

So that was my marvelous time spent at Downton, I hope you've enjoyed coming along with me! I think I'll have some iced tea and daydream about all the fun I had.  

Happy Wednesday!