Giveaway Update

I had planned to announce a giveaway by the end of March to celebrate my one year blogging anniversary, but here it is the end of April and I still don't have anything set up.  I have to leave early early tomorrow for a one-day trip but will do my best to post something on Sunday, May 1.  If you're a follower or commented on my one-year blog post you're already registered, but if not check back Sunday evening and leave a comment for a chance (or an extra chance) to win.

I'll be posting about the May Basket swap on Sunday, too.  Here's a little preview.

Craft Days

I am so very late posting about some recent craft days.  On March 19, Leann, Debbie and Jeanne came over to make "bird bowls" from Anna Corba's Vintage Paper Crafts book.  We had a great time visiting and crafting.  They all took home cute wooden bowls, not quite finished but close.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo while they were here but maybe I can get them to send me some. Ladies?

I only had one wooden bowl with painted flowers and we all deemed it too cute to decoupage over, so I did a tray.  It's still not finished (imagine that) but here's a preview shot.  I just need to find some jute trim (that I know I have stashed somewhere) to go around the edge to add interest - and to cover my messy painting.

On March 27, Chris and Kerry came over for a craft day.  I did a tutorial on the burnt-edge or singed flowers.  Kerry did a tutorial earlier this year on the Tim Holtz-style paper roses and Tim Holtz Fragments, and Chris will be showing us applique-making on the Cricut next month.  While they were here, we also made ribbon roses and decoupaged birds similar to the one on Sue's blog. 

As part of our craft days, we decided to do mini-swaps. Our first was a destash exchange - what's old to one is new to another, right?  This time we made cloth collages.  Kerry's (with the spot of blue) and Chris's are both amazing. They both have a great sense of style and are very imaginative.

I enjoyed putting mine together and was inspired by the collage I received from Jamie to use a napkin as the base.  They were supposed to be 5" x 7" but I cheated and made them bigger in order to use the napkins.  I was also supposed to make one for myself but haven't done that yet. 

I'm loving craft days.  It's wonderful to hear about what everyone else has been working on and to see how each person interprets a project or idea.  I LOVE my artsy crafty friends!

Happy Easter!

Wishing everyone a peaceful and happy Easter weekend.  Thought I'd share some of the natural beauty in our backyard - these gorgeous things thrive in spite of neglect.  Please ignore the weeds.

Oops!  How did they get in here? That's Henry with his cousin Ethel.

April Finds

April isn't over yet but I'm so short on space these days that I need to skip any junqueing forays until I either get rid of some things or reorganize.  That said, here are a few things I added to my stash this month.  Happy junqueing, everyone!

A few cards, hankies and embellishments. Love the poodles.

Vintage millinary fruit, a small compact and lots of bling
for fifty cents to a dollar a piece.

A hat from e-Bay, doilys, an old notebook to jazz up
and use as a journal, vintage seam binding, an old
clothes brush (like the stripe), a piece of bling, and
two old needle folders without the needles.

I have a smaller version of this and am using them to store
scissors, rulers and other supplies on my craft table.

I have absolutely no idea where I'm going to
put this but it was too cute to leave behind.

Another Sneak Peek

This is for a swap project I'm working on.  You can't tell anything about the project at this point, but I liked the image of all these ladies.  It seems very Monty Python-esque.

Thank you, Michael's

A couple of months ago I e-mailed Michael's because I was totally fed up with having to print pages of coupons when I only needed one or two AND with each coupon having a huge black bar across the top that required a ton of toner.  Lo and behold, this past week when I was ready to print my coupons, there was an option to select only the ones I wanted to print, and there was no black bar on any of them.  They actually listened!  I'm sure I'm not the only one who brought this up and maybe they've been working on a better system for a while, but it made me happy anyway.  Thanks, Michael's! 

To celebrate, I bought a pile of stuff today, including several fun things from the clearance bins.  LOVE the clearance bins.  Here are a few of my purchases.  I also bought some Glitter Mod Podge which I just discovered in a class last week.  LOVE it.  So fun.

Sneak Peek

Can't have two posts in a row with no pics, so here's a sneak peek at a fun May Day swap project I put in the mail yesterday.  It should be delivered to its destination tomorrow.  I'll post more as soon as I know it's been received.

Benefit Bling

While browsing for some art tutorials online, I ran across Jess's blog.  She's selling some of her beautiful earrings at a discounted price and donating all the proceeds (up to $200) for aid to Japan.  Her jewelry is lovely.  If you're in the market for some earrings and want to do good at the same time, check it out here.
I scrolled through her most recent blog postings and found several great recipes and ideas.  Her blog is simple, sweet and informative.