Saturday, July 18, 2009

Free Images & Fun!!






Good morning and happy Saturday, my friends!! Oh, how I have missed you all and I have so missed blogging.......good news is I am going to half days at work which will free up my afternoons for FUN things, like blogging, and checking in on all of you, and creating.......lunches with my girls, Mom and Mom-in-law........thrifting, junking and flea-ing (is that a WORD??)......painting, decorating, cooking......can we tell I am EXCITED???? Three more weeks of full-time, then .........FREEDOM!!!!

So today I have to show you the GORGEOUS pin-cushion my littlest grand-daughter, Morgan Grace, and I made with the FABULOUS tutorial I got from the beautiful and talented Dawn of The Feathered Nest!!! We had such fun, and the bits are so special, too. The Limoges ladies boot I used was my precious grandmother's as was the fabulous cotton quilt fabric from her stash. The vintage seam binding I found on a Round Rock trip to the Antiques Festival in October - if you haven't been, dears........GO!! Marburger Farm in Round Rock, Texas - every April and October - if you don't find it there, it ain't to be had!! Morgan and I added some vintage styled pins, and voila!! One thing I did to make it more stable, since it is tall and narrow, I added some craft sand in the bottom of the shoe to keep it from tipping over every time you pulled a pin!!!

There are also some adorable images for your use - these are BOYS from the Civil War era - yep, BOYS!! In dresses.......you see, my GREAT-Grandmother (who was born in 1876 and lived to be 107!!) told me all about this......boys wore dresses when they were little fellas, then graduated to short pants (like the older brother in the one photo), THEN went into the longer pants of the older boys and men.. That's your history lesson for the day :) Anyway, they are so sweet I wanted to share them with you!! Enjoy!!

Have a wonderful weekend, sweet friends, and hug your loved ones!! Every day is a precious gift from the Lord and I read a quote the other day....wish I wrote down who said it......"yes, what you do today IS important......remember, you are using a day of your LIFE to DO it!!"

Blessings, laughs, hugs and love, Marji

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Whew!!!





Got the kids moved into new apartments so I made them some planters for the patios.....had so much fun.......love to make these!!! I have a special haven in the garden where I can putter about and create lovely planters and such, it is so soothing and calm out there. I make moss rocks for my beds and herb garden, too, and I will have to do a tutorial on that for ya'll, because they are EXPENSIVE to buy!! There is a family joke about moss rocks....when DH and I were making the first herb garden I decided I needed some large rocks covered in moss for the beds.......we went to a materials yard where DH practically fainted at the idea of spending 150.00 on ROCKS (thought I had rocks in my head, truth to tell) but he bought them and it has been a joke around here ever since. Every time I decide I want something that is in the least bit off the wall, the kids spout "Uh oh, Mom is buying moss rocks again!" I DID learn how to make my own, as I was pretty certain he was NEVER gonna BUY them again......sigh!!!! It is 104 every day so it has been a challenge just to get the energy to think, however........LOL.....South Texas in the summer.....like up north in the winter.......we'll be getting cabin fever by August 1st at this rate!!!

I bought some fabulous tutorials from Dawn over at The Feathered Nest - my grandbabies are coming to craft with me and I wanted to have a pictorial view of what we were doing - these are just perfect and the kids can understand and feel like they made something "all by themselves" ( well, almost!!) -a little help from Gramma never hurt anyone!!! I am going to help the littlest one make a pincushion for her Mama - that will be a lot of fun!!

I have been cleaning and sorting in my studio this past week and I have found some cool papers and such that I even forgot I had.....how fun is THAT....so I will get some scanned and share - it's almost like Christmas around here when I finally get through the spring rush and rediscover my studio and my stash!!!

Well, gotta get back to it - can't have those little ones in there like it is now - wouldn't FIND them till Christmas!!!!

Have a fabulous day, my friends!!

Blessings, Marji