Busy As A Bee!

Well, Spring is coming!  At least that's what I keep telling myself.  For my readers on the east coast, my heart goes out to you!  I'd be out of mind if we were getting that much snow.  Oh wait, been there, done that!  I do try to have a sense of humor about my depression experience! 

Anyway, I spent today listing things that mom and I made.  I didn't even get everything done before I had to say, "enough"!  I'm spent now so I'll be heading off shortly for a nice warm bubble bath and a few magazines.  I'll list the rest of our things over the weekend.

In the meantime, I thought I share photos of our creations.  First is my mom's latest St. Patrick's Day Tussy Mussy:



Isn't she pretty?  And so cute with her little Irish Setter!

Next mom made some Easter ornaments:



And some Blanket Babies with Bunnies:



Those are just so sweet!  and perfect for New Baby package tie on's!

My offereings are these pretty little Shamrock Ladies:



I did 4 of them but if you look closely (click on the images), you'll see that each one has a different Irish lady on it.  These were fun to make!

And this is my Piece De Resistance: 



My Marie Antoinette Trinket Box!  Oh, how pleased I am with this!  And so much fun.  I used a ton of my vintage millinery flowers and some vintage rhinestones that I painstakingly took out of some junk jewelry that I bought at a flea market awhile back.

I have all sorts of new projects planned.  I have to keep a journal for my ideas now! 

Tomorrow will be another day with mom and flying glitter!  Ha, ha, ha!  After then bank and post office of course!

For now, I'll leave you with an update on Block #7 of my Garden Crazy Quilt:



Not quite done yet.  Still a little ways to go.  Have a good evening everyone.  I think I'll have Scott order carry out.

Reclaiming My Mind

Ladies, I'm happy to say that today, has been the most normal feeling day I've had in well over a year!  Now, keep in mind, I said "most normal" rather than normal.  No, it's not gone yet.  I think I'll fall out of my chair and hit my head on something the day I realize that it is gone but for not being gone, it's definitely improving.  All this despite having to shovel snow, clean snow off my car and drive in snow this morning.  I can feel twinges of my normal emotions coming back. Just a little here and there. I feel grief off and on for my Garfield (am really, really noticing that he's not here now) and although I know I've always hated this time of year and esp. snow, I have pretty much been oblivious to my feelings of disliking it.  Until this morning.  Oooh, I hate shoveling and I hate driving in it!  And I say good because I actually felt something other than weirdness! 

With that said, I finished up my Marie Antoinette Trinket Box and will share photos soon.  It's gorgeous!  I used tons of my vintage millinery flowers on it and some vintage rhinestones and feathers and ooof!  So pretty!

I also worked up my 2010 Just Cross Stitch Ornament design and I stitched (early this morning) on Block #7 of my Garden Quilt:



I've been experimenting with woven stitches.  I'm not 100% pleased with how they look at the moment but you know, the minute I get some beads in there, they'll look very cool.  You can see the first one worked in yellow and the 2nd one at the bottom right.

The blue floral trim is from a vintage baby dress that I bought at a flea market awhile back.  It was pretty beat up but the trim was in great shape so I bought for the trim and took the trim off.  You'd be surprised how much trim you can off of a little tiny baby dress!

BTW - Jo in NZ is back and she's starting on a new project.  Do hop over and take a peek.  It'll be great fun to watch Jo's progress on this quilt.  She's planning on getting quite crazy with it like I do.  I told her that my crazy quilting is just as crazy as my head!  :)

Cookies, Valentine's And Biscornu's

It's an interesting combination of topics, don't you think? 

I baked 2 batches of cookies yesterday morning:



Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies and Chocolate Orange Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies.  I took some to my parent's house yesterday for my dad's birthday.  And whenever I bake, I fix up a couple of little bags for the 2 little kids across the street. 

These are not my Valentine cookies.  I won't start on those until the weekend.  Just a little treat with red & pink sprinkles!

And speaking of Valentine's, I only made one Valentine Card this year:



I'm not into cards so much anymore.  I guess I discovered some other interesting things to put glitter on!  Ha, ha, ha!  You know me, all that glitters is gold!

Anyway, I worked up my Biscornu Of Month for February:



and that is now available here.

I'm out of steam for today.  I started a Marie Antoinette box but I don't have the energy to work on it at the moment.  I think I'll go stitch and listen to Food Channel.  I didn't do all that much today.  I made some soup and did some paperwork and laundry.  That's it.  Some days are better than others I guess.

Let Them Eat Cake! And Cookies!!!

I'm getting ready to mix up some Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookie dough and Chocolate Orange Sugar Cookie dough.  I'm going to put the dough in the fridge and bake them in the morning.  I confess, I really love cookies!  And chocolate!  And I don't quite have the will power that I used to have.  Esp. with my mom's cookies!  She was baking when I arrived at her house this morning and oh, I love that!  Reminds me of when I was little.  I would get home from school to find mom baking and that awesome scent floating around in the house! 

But since the cookies aren't ready yet, Let Them Eat Cake!!!  I told you I was into Marie Antoinette.  Well, I made a Marie Antoinette Blank Journel:



Isn't this cool?  Lot's of places to use glitter on here!  These do take awhile.  I really had no idea how time consuming they were.  The front and backs are covered as are the inside covers.  I always do a sweet little envelope and a matching bookmark.  I'm wanting to make some fabric journal covers.  Would give me a chance to run my sewing machine!

This Blank Journal is a custom order.  It's for a little girl so my client didn't want a ton of glitter on it:



The only glitter on this journal is on the vintage card that I used.  I figured the card is at least 50 years old.  If the glitter stayed on that long, it's not going to go anywhere now!

So while I was making journals, mom was making more Tussy Mussy's:







I just love these!  And my mom is so into mixed media now!  I never expected it from her.  She's always been so traditional.  She asked me to bring her more of my Somerset Studio magazines and some of my Cottage Style decorating magazines.  I guess you can teach old dogs new tricks.  Not that I think of my mom as old because I don't.  We're actually like 2 little kids playing with the craft supplies!

In other news, I've noticed a bit more improvement regarding this horrible depression that I've been living with.  Mornings and evenings are still not good but, I noticed the past couple of days, that I feel a bit more on the planet.  It still goes back and forth but I know that feeling grounded will eventually take over and stay put.

I'll tell you, this whole depression thing has been like living in a Stephen King novel.  And now I know where he comes up with all that weird stuff.  He suffers from severe depression.  Edgar Allen Poe had severe Bi-Polar.  He's another one with the weirdo stories and due to my experience the past year, I could write some of that creepy stuff too but I'd rather not remember it.  I really prefer to think of fuzzy little fluffy things like puppies, kitties, birds and butterflies! 

I'm told, in time, that I will forget much of this experience.  I say thank God for that!  Quite honestly though, I would find it hard to believe that someone who went through this would not be changed by it.  I've been dealing with depression all my life and didn't even know.  The "off the charts" anxiety was always obvious to me but the depression wasn't.  It's my severe anxiety that goes with my ADD that causes the depression.  Still, I've never had an episode like this before.  And don't care to ever go through it again.

I'm off to run that Kitchenaid!

Glitter Houses for the Birds!

Yes, I do believe I've mentioned my love for glitter once or twice!  I finished these up this morning:



I love birds but these aren't for outside!  My husband would call these, "Look At Birdhouses"!  He learned a long time ago that anything stitched on or handmade is off limits to him.  Don't touch!!!  That's for looking at!

I glued some vintage lace to the roof of each birdhouse and then added glitter.  They're so sparkly!

And another finish of mine:



I finished this block up this morning before I went into town.  I can't believe I did 6 blocks already.  They seem to be stitching up a little quicker than my purses.  They're only 1 inch smaller! 

Anyway, here is block #7:



Not sure if I'll start on this one right away or if I want to do something else.  I have all these great ideas of things I want to do but I only have 2 hands and 1 brain.  We won't go there!  Ha, ha, ha!

Well, I have an order to put together and then I plan to relax and look through my magazines until my husband gets home.