A Little Fall Sparkle

Today is a spectacular fall day in Florida - crisp (51 last night and high predicted of 72 today), brilliant sun, and light breeze. Yesterday it seemed cold here because the clouds never lifted all day, and you can't imagine how cold the insides of restaurants and stores were as they still had on the air conditioning. I had to attend a luncheon board meeting of the Friends of the Library yesterday and even though I wore a long sleeved top, I was freezing. I had to stop on the way home at Starbucks for a pumpkin spice latte (just to warm up of course). We just got in some beautiful beaded jewelry sets at the gift shop and I decided to splurge and get one (see below). I just love the fall colors and the painted beads - the necklace is structured such that it can be worn at least 3 different ways from short (as you see it here) to a single long strand. The colors and beads reminded me of a bracelet (see above closeup) that I made a couple of years ago (did I ever mention that I do beadwork?) I love the look of the bracelet but I have to admit that with all of those beads, it's fairly heavy.

Here's a shot from farther away of our bedside table, showing the quilt currently hanging on the wall behind it (ever changing display of wallquilts for the seasons). This was a fun and easy quilt that I made a couple of years ago - I love the play of the fabrics, and I suppose you have guessed by now that pears are one of my favorite fruits (LOL! layouts, paintings, quilts - I know - will this madness never end?!)

A closeup of one of the pears - this quilt was appliqued, pieced, and quilted by hand. The only things done on the sewing machine were the long seams putting the blocks together and the borders.

And now a very special thank you -

Last week I did a posting about Dina Wakley and her incredible art journal pages and the fabulous stencils that she uses. Well, I received the most fantastic surprise - Julie T-W, my crazy and incredible boss at TAAFOMFT and wonderful friend sent me a copy of the Stencil 101 book - it is awesome!!!!!! The book was in the mailbox when I got home yesterday and I just sat down and started looking at it - the stencils are so detailed, the designs are so unusual, and the whole thing is so sturdy - I am super psyched about this. I was getting crazed ideas about layout backgrounds and other projects so ..... you can expect to see some different things emerging from the studio very soon. Thank you Julie - you are absolutely the bestest!!!!!

I have lots to do today - I am working on several Christmas presents that I want to finish today and I need to tidy up the studio as it is kind of a mess (how does this happen??????) I also want to bake a key lime cake. Tomorrow I have to work part of the day but then I need to go shopping - I plan to make my mother's Christmas cake recipe this year but when I went to my normal grocery store (Publix) yesterday, they didn't have candied cherries or pineapple so I will have to try some other stores (like Walmart, which I really am not fond of). Anyone got any suggestions?

Have a great Friday and I know that I will be back for sure on Sunday as the new These are a few of my favorite things challenge will be up.

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