Available - Handsome Guy with a Great Sense of Humor

Meet Jake.  We're fostering him for Forever Yours Rescue in Oklahoma City.  He's been here about three months now and we're becoming too attached, but he is a very active boy and deserves a family that will give him more exercise than two late middle agers and two Basset Hounds can offer.  He's allegedly part Basset Hound, but he seems to be much more of a Retriever.

Jake is very entertaining.  The first week he was here he climbed to the top of a six-foot shrub - I could kick myself for not having a camera handy.  He has an Elvis grin that is adorable, loves to chase birds (the ones in our yard don't seem to mind), and LOVES to run.  If you're a walker or runner, he'd be only too happy to accompany you on a daily basis.

Jake is about two years old, about 55-60 lbs., housebroken, neutered, heartworm negative, and doesn't shed much.  He's loving, gets along very well with other dogs (don't know about cats), and is sweet and comical.  He can jump and climb, so a six-foot privacy fence is essential, and he must be an indoor-outdoor dog as he loves to spend time with people as well as romp outside.

If you need a cute and friendly dog that will make you laugh, check out his Petfinder listing here.  But hurry. If he stays much longer, we're going to be too attached to let him go!

Estate Sale and Antique Mall Finds

The DH and I traveled to Stillwater Saturday for an estate sale and a visit to one of our favorite antique malls.  There were several good finds at the estate sale, including this little chartreuse box.  I looked at my ticket later and realized they didn't even charge me for it!

I've been wanting one of these for quite some time but the ones I've seen were more than I wanted to pay or were damaged. I don't mind a crack or chip here and there, but the ones I've found in the past that I could afford were beyond what's acceptable even for me. 

I also found this petite kimono-style jacket or robe that will be going on Etsy as soon as it's pressed and measurements taken.  I love the closures. 

I bought several "boxes of crap" as I affectionately call them - my favorite things - and at the bottom of one box I was thrilled to find this little gem.

It's a vintage Arrow stapler, and it works perfectly!  I can't tell you how many cheap plastic staplers I've bought, and I always get upset when they quit working or just fall apart after a few months.  This beauty has apparently been working for years and I hope will continue to do so.

I'll have more to show soon.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope you're having a wonderful Valentine's Day!  My Valentine brought me a bouquet last night so I thought I would share it with you.

He told me he picked the bouquet with the bright orange Shasta daisies because they caught his eye, just like I did over 26 years ago!  Isn't he sweet?

Hearts aren't just for Valentine's Day, but it's a great time to feature a couple.  I added a few more embellishments to the heart I made at French General with Pam Garrison and Charlotte Lyons.  I did a basic running stitch around the edge using metallic thread from FG and added a hanging ribbon and a couple of green velvet flowers.  Don't you love the edge?  Someone at the class had scalloped fabric shears, like pinking shears only scalloped.  Now I desperately want some but have learned that Fiskars stopped making them a year or so ago. 

I love my FG heart!  This one will be staying with me, as will all the things made on that trip, but I couldn't resist making another heart.  I just listed this one on Etsy and will be making more for the Pistol Annie's show in April.

Tag IS It!

Before leaving for French General, I decided Chris, Wanda and I needed a tag to comemmorate our trip. I used some French General fabric purchased at Silver Bella in 2010 and borrowed some graphics from the FG website. The tags for Chris and Wanda were tucked into little goodie bags.

Last week I made tags as a consolation prize for those who entered but didn't win my recent blog giveaway.  Tags are quick and easy once I come up with a design, and enjoyable to make.  The first of these went to Laurie, the middle one to Wendy, and the cute pup to Lisa.  I still owe a tag to one entrant, but need her mailing address.

I'll be doing Pistol Annie's antiques and craft show on April 13 and 14 in Perkins, Oklahoma, near Stillwater.  If you're local, please come by.  They have about 40 vendors so far, and you can see updates on their Facebook page here.

The Charm of French General, and Meeting Terry

Honestly, I can't say enough about the lovliness and charm of French General. Kaari Meng, along with her sister Molly, her mom and dad, Dawn and others made us feel spoiled the entire weekend of their third annual Art of Craft Event January 27-29.

I have four of Kaari's books and have long been entranced by the style and just the idea of French General. Both Kaari and the shop more than met my expectations. There was something fabulous everywhere your eye could rest.

There were cabinets and shelves brimming with fabric, lace, beads, ribbon, and vintage papers - everything you'd imagine and more.  We were provided with all the supplies necessary for our projects, and were offered a selection of items from French General's stock to accent each project.  We also got to work with some of French General's new paper and other products that will be coming out in May from Jolee's Boutique.  You're going to love them! You can see the products and project ideas on their website.

Our classes were button bracelets with Kaari, an embellished heart with Pam Garrison and Charlotte Lyons, a truffle box with Michelle Jorgensen, a pocket journal with Molly Meng, and a beeswax journal with Anna Corba.  I enjoyed every class and love each piece.

If you've never been to French General and you have the opportunity, please go!  You won't regret it.

Of course, another huge highlight of my trip was meeting my permanent swap partner, Terry Frias!  If you've been reading my blog all along, you'll know that we "met" when we were paired for Kari Ramstrom's Sweet and Sinister Halloween swap in 2010.  We each loved what we received so much we decided to do our own one-on-one swap for most holidays. When I decided to sign up for the Art of Craft Weekend, Terry immediately shuffled her schedule and signed up for most of the classes. 

She's sweet and funny, and it was so much fun to spend time together.  Here she is with her beeswax journal and with Michelle from Paper Tales in San Diego (would love to make it there sometime!)

Here are Chris and I with Kaari.  Something apparently was going on just to the side of us as Wanda snapped the photo.

Chris Mack and I traveled together and met Wanda Clark in the Las Vegas airport.  We all stayed at the Glendale Hilton which was only about six miles from French General and about ten miles from the Burbank airport.  Here's Wanda with her beeswax journal project.  She gave Chris and me each an amazing packet of buttons and lace. We used some of the buttons on our bracelets Friday evening.

We didn't have a lot of free time, but did manage to explore a bit in Glendale.  We saw this whimsical fountain the first evening and an adorable little girl was having the best time there.

We initally thought the Americana in downtown Glendale was a hotel, but it's condominiums or apartments.

We were looking for a bookstore on Sunday and discovered this upscale shopping area behind the Americana.  It was lovely, and there was a Barnes and Noble.  Perfect!

With the exception of choking on a potato chip fragment on Sunday (literally choking - I can't thank Chris enough for saving me with the Heimlich maneuver), it was a wonderful trip!  

We Have a Winner!

Thank you so much to those who commented on my giveaway post.  I'm not the most prolific blogger, so I appreciate that you hang with me. 

My DH goes to sleep before me and leaves the house before I get up, so I left him a message in my scrawly 2:30 a.m. handwriting asking him to pick the winner before he left for work. Each name was printed on a strip of paper, all the same size, and placed in a little bowl (someday I'm going to have to learn to use the random number generator, but the DH method will have to do for now.)  And the winner is...

Congratulations, Wanda! I hope you enjoy the goodies.

I appreciate each of you who took the time to comment.  For the four who commented but didn't win, please send me your mailing address (if we've not communicated via USPS before) to junqueseeker@yahoo.com and I'll send you a Valentine tag.

Sweet Bird of Winter

I was beyond thrilled to win this beautiful canvas by Becky Shander!  Her pieces are so subtle and calming, and I'm always in awe of her work. 

 

If you read Somerset publications I'm sure you've seen many of her creations.  If you're not familiar with her work, please visit her website here.  You can see additional photos and read about Becky's recent blog giveaway here.

Thank you, Becky!  I will treasure this always.

Valentine's Giveaway

I just finished a few Valentine's tags and listed them in my Etsy shop.  I'm hoping to make more. It takes me longer than it should, but I enjoy the process. The sweet little girls came from The Graphics Fairy and the man with umbrella is Tim Holtz.

Making these tags put me in the mood for a Valentine's giveaway.  I owe you a giveaway from my 100th post last October, and this seems like the perfect time.  If I wait much longer there will be another milestone to celebrate!

One lucky person will receive a selection of ribbons (including two from French General); doilies (red, pink and gold hearts plus a few of the vintage Royalies I found last fall); a few labels, Dresden birds and velvet leaves from French General; and an assortment of buttons and other goodies that should have you making your own Valentine's tags in no time.  Of course, there will be a few surprises included, too!

If you'd like a chance to win, just leave a comment on this post by midnight CST on Tuesday, January 23, then check back on Wednesday for the name of the winner. 

Please share the fun and let your friends know about the giveaway.  Love and good luck to all!

The Best Friday the 13th Ever

The class last Friday with Donna Downey was amazing!  It was a 3-hour class, designed to get participants into the mind set that whatever you do in your art journal is yours and it's okay.  It wasn't like any class I've had before, but I felt like it was just what I needed.  To get the full benefit, I also took the 5-hour class on Saturday.  There were about 30 people in each class - limited by space only, I'm sure.

To begin, we each received one of Donna's expandable journals.  Those of us taking both the Friday and Saturday classes received two.  I worked in one both days and am saving the other for later.  One thing I love about Donna's journals is that the covers accommodate the filled pages.  The journals come with one signature and room for another.  She also puts the smaller "insert" pages on each spread to challenge you to think outside the box and come up with something to complement the rest of the spread.  

One of our first instructions was to take a pencil and put something on a blank page.  I wrote "just begin" and wasn't happy with it at all.  We then painted a page and drizzled ink over it.  I didn't work on this spread much more during class but added a few things at home and ended up with this.  I'll probably add more later.

Here are a few of my other pages.  I'm sure I'll be adding more to them later, and still have several blank pages to work on. Bear in mind that I've never had any formal art training other than a junior high art class, and my talents lie more in the sewing area. Please be kind.

We were asked to add certain shapes and colors to a page.  Mine was green circles and triangles.    

We tried photo transfer using gel medium.  I added the suitcases cut from a magazine.  More to do on this page.

This one started as torn paper mosaic.  It still needs something - just not sure what.

This is my favorite spread so far.  I have no idea why as these are not colors I'd typically use, but I love it as is and most likely won't add anything else.

At one point we were told to take our books, move to someone else's area, and use their supplies.  I love this tree screen.  The shadow of the woman was a failed photo transfer that lifted some paint leaving an outline. I like it.

The directions for this spread were to use tape on two pages in two different ways.  I love the stamps and the horse image cut from a magazine, plus the little bit of cardboard given to me by a table mate.  I'll probably add some journaling at some point.

If you have the opportunity to take one of Donna's classes, I would recommend them.  She also does Inspiration Wednesday each week on her blog, and has archives of many of them.

Donna Downey Classes

Donna Downey is in OKC this weekend and I'm excited to be taking two journaling classes with her.  My tote is crammed full of things for the class.  Certain things you bring must fit into a one-gallon zip bag (curious to know the reason behind that) but you get to bring lots of extras.  If all goes well I'll have something fun to show after the weekend.

P.S.  I haven't forgotten that I owe you a giveaway.  I had an idea that didn't really pan out, but I promise there will be something within the next few weeks.

Happy New Year!

This is the story of my life and something I should work on this year, but hey, why change now?  Ha!

I started this post on January 1, and here I am on the tenth finally putting it out there.  I've been thinking back over my favorite excursions this year, all the fantabulous junque I found, and my favorite craft projects.  While there were many of each, I hope to have even more traveling, junqueing, and creating to share in the coming months.

The day after Christmas I traveled to San Angelo, TX with my parents to visit my oldest brother and his family.  We had a great visit, including a shopping day at the mall and the thrift stores.  My sister-in-law loves to junque as much as I do, and her mom is a junquer from way back.  Her parents just moved and downsized, and Jackie saved me a few things from her mom's stash - some lovely old photo holders, glass Christmas ornaments, a very vintage Scrabble game, and this little cardboard village made to go over a string of Christmas lights.  Aren't they the cutest? I'm going to look forward to next December when I can display them.

  

Jackie also gave me a cute green log planter, shown below with a wonderful vintage wire "in" basket and a map puzzle that my niece Jen gave me.  I'm already using the basket, and have a few ideas for the puzzle pieces.  The planter has been added to my chartreuse collection.

From San Angelo, we traveled to Odessa, TX to visit my sister and her family and my brother's younger daughter and her family.  While there we saw a great movie - We Bought A Zoo.  I highly recommend it.  My sister gave me some fun lace, trim and buttons that she got from her mother-in-law.  I've already used a couple of pieces of lace, and look forward to incorporating more in the things I make this year. I especially love the green trim and the red, white and blue flowered trim.

I received several fun gifts before the holidays, too, but they were sorted and used before I got photos.  Thanks to my friends and family for supporting my creative and junqueing habits!

Wishing you a year filled with creativity and fun finds!