About Me

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Sublimity, OR, United States
****WELCOME FRIENDS****
I am artist of texture and color. I enjoy working with textiles, mixed media and the graphic arts. I am an avid cottage gardener with a love for pass along plants and big fluffy pink peonies and pink roses. Many of my tangible creations reflect my love of the garden and all its wonderful colors. I have been selling my creations online since 2002 beginning as a hobby. After 10 years I quit the day job to pursue my art as a full time passion.

31 December 2010

as 2010 goes away....

New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights. 
~Hamilton Wright Mabie

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched.  Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential. 
~Ellen Goodman

Happy New Year friends!

29 December 2010

What I accomplished in 2010...

I got my guest room makeover done!

If you remember, I teased all of you a bit with elements that I repurposed for this room. This room makeover is one of the features in the New Year Romance issue of 
Shabby Lane Shops Magazine.
To see the full article, the magazine is available for purchase on my website 
Here are a few of the pics--click on them to see full size! 

I am tagging onto Southern Hospitality's Blog Party
Top projects for 2010
 





Hope you enjoyed!


26 December 2010

Vintage Alphabet Party December

It's the last party of the year!


The last letters of the alphabet Y and Z

For Y, I choose vintage fabric Yo Yo's. these became popular back in the 1930's and 1940's. Little fabric rosettes shirred into circles. They were most often made into quilts. They were popular again in the 1970's when they were fashioned into "hippie vests". In the mid 90's, patterns were introduced and more recently plastic templates became available making them extremely easy to make. 
I love to use them in my textile art too. Here are a couple examples of past work.


For the letter Z, I chose (and yes I am dating myself here)
Led Zeppelin
mid 1970's rock group one of my faves back in the day
so how's that for throwing something unexpected in?
Wasn't a Zeppelin also a blimp??



Hope you enjoyed...if you want to join our party, hop over to

24 December 2010

Christmas Greetings around the globe

I wanted to send Holiday wishes to my many friends I have made around the world this year!
Since I added the google translator to my blog, many of you have visited regularly and I also had the opportunity to visit so many of yours too.

Froehliche Weihnachten

Feliz Navidad

С Рождеством Христовым

Feliz Natal

즐거운 성탄

メリークリスマス

Buon Natale

Χαρούμενα Χριστούγεννα

Joyeux Noël

Vrolijk Kerstfeest

圣诞快乐

God Jul!

Gledelig Jul

Hyvää Joulua!

Mele Kalikimaka

Boas Festas

Suksan Wan Christmas

Merry Christmas!

21 December 2010

Christmas helpers

While one is the "cookie queen" helping her mommy make cookies and keeping busy...


while the other is keeping busy "undecorating" the tree and looking pretty innocent (and pretty cute too)


ahhh, I love my cute little granddaughters!

18 December 2010

A favorite at Christmas

I had to send this recipe to my daughter this morning, so thought I would share it here too. I got this recipe from Woman's Day Magazine December 1992~ I have also seen this variations of this recipe called Buckeyes too. This one is the closest to the Reeses candy I have tasted! Love it for the holidays with sprinkles too!




Peanut butter balls

2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon milk
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup (6 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon shortening
sprinkles--optional

Filling:
mix powdered sugar, butter, milk granulated sugar and vanilla until blended. Mix in peanut butter. Line pan with wax paper Roll heaping teaspoons full into 3/4" balls, place on pan and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
Topping:
Melt chocolate and shortening in a small glass bowl at 1/2 power in microwave for 30 seconds, a little more if needed. You can do in a small saucepan on stove too. Just be careful not to get it too hot, the chips just need to be melted.
One at a time with a toothpick, dip balls in chocolate, let excess drip off . return to pan and before chocolate sets sprinkle balls if desired. Store in airtight container in refrigerator up to 2 weeks



11 December 2010

The joy's of decorating for the holidays...part two

Okay, the monster tree finally got decorated. But taking a photo of it proved to be a monster too.This time of year available light is at a minimum, so I used my big 300 watt floor lamp I use in my studio~hence I got shadows and never could capture the beauty. Ahhh, if only I was a professional photographer.
So if you were expecting a pink tree....sorry. I love pink for Christmas, and I reserved a place for that in one of the photos below...but I also love the old Victorian style. My house is a misson craftsman style, so Victorian works well in my living room.

click on the pics for more detail



the Joyeux Noel banner is new this year. I had it custom made by

this is my "shabby" place with the white tree and white santas

Stay tuned for "part three"  I still need to decorate outside!
yikes..

07 December 2010

Western Oregon winter sunrise

I shot these photos just at sunrise this morning!  This was the most magnificent December sunrise I have seen in some time~it literally took my breath away. You can see the Cascade mountains and the snow fields in the second photo. Click on the photos to see full size



I thank the Lord everyday for blessing us with such an awesome view of the farmland, hills, and mountains right outside our door!

TREE UPDATE~ I know you have been waiting to see my Christmas tree. Well, let me tell you, this has not been easy. Not only did I lie about NOT getting a 12 ft tree, but I think this one was well over 15ft. But I got it trimmed down to about 12ft. I had problems with the stings of lights, so I bought new ones, only to have one bad string. So at this moment, I am on day 3 of decorating my tree. But the lights all work now so I trudge ahead...stay tunned

04 December 2010

The joy's of decorating for the holidays...part one

I didn't feel much like sewing today. So I sat down and designed a new Christmas blog here. I love pink Santa's and this is from a vintage Christmas card that was pretty beat up, but I managed to get his "pinkness" out of it!
My daughter and I attended a wonderful Christmas Brunch at our Church today, then headed over to one of the local craft bazaars at the middle school. I took 40 bucks, spent it all, and wrote two checks! I did actually buy a couple of gifts, but most of it was for myself. I met an incredible young talented gal whose art composition was just amazing. Hard to describe her look. A bit rustic prim style as she used lots of burlap with dark brown and burgandy colors. But she also mixed in a lot of old world sparkle and glitter, a vintage sheet music. I am looking forward to seeing her non Christmas creations too.
Below is one of the pieces I bought from her....Just love how the rustic bell forms the "o". Simple elegance.


Below are some lovely Victorian art from a new local artist
The framed mixed media piece will be perfect displayed with my "Joy" above
I also picked up some lovely bookmarks which will be given as gifts.


Below is a plate on a pedestal...for FIVE BUCKS!
this is going to be wonderful in a table centerpiece!


Now to get myself away from the computer and actually decorate my home. Tomorrow we will go to my brother's tree farm and cut a tree. I promised myself NO 12 ft tall tree this year. Just too hard to decorate!
When that is done I will share. I am excited about the fireplace mantle this year...I have lots of new elements to add, so will be sharing that too!


Every Saturday

Where we reside

Where we reside

The Oregon Coastline

The Oregon Coastline