What is your favorite store?

The new challenge is up at http://whatisyourfavething.blogspot.com/ and it is What is your favorite store or shop?  I had a hard time with this as there are some incredible eye candy stores that I love like Anthropologie but they are way out of my budget - so I decided to go with Target -great style and good value for the money.  Be sure to post your layout by the 14th of July - we would love to see it!

Also, ScrapGal is having a DT call as we have lost so many of the team - Chez, Mandy, Heather, Jamie, and KristinaK are all gone - check out the DT call - we are a fun bunch to hang out with!

I have been spending quite a bit of time getting my new laptop organized - also painting and knitting but not much scrapping. And I have been reading voraciously - mysteries, historical novels, travel books, and poetry. All I want to do is stay inside in the a/c and read - very little motivation. 

Thanks for stopping by and hope you are having a great day!
ttfn
Chris

Happy Solstice! (and a Winner and some peeks)

Midsummer ---
Longest day
Shortest night
Longest light
Shortest dark
The world within
Echoes the world without
Lush foliage, leaves unfurled
Soft springy grass dotted with
Brightly colored flowers peeping through
The earth is green and bright
With warm sunny days
Clear velvety blue skies
Gentle cool breezes
Nature in glory
Our hopes blossom
Creativity flowers
With the season
The seeds of the fruit
Our desires will bear
Can be seen
On the stems
Of our dreams

   by JT

 About 1/4th knitted of my Knit a Beach summer wrap for the Summer of the Traveling Wrap on Ravelry

a few peeks of some things I finished this week but can't be shown just yet

Thank you all so much for comments this past week and per the random number generator, Bekka is the winner!!!!!!!! Please email me your address and I will mail you an apron and some goodies - scrapping, fabric, yarn, beads - just let me know what sounds fun!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Solstice - I remember how magical I thought summer nights were when I was a child - sitting on the front porch with my grandmother and then sometimes running in the yard to catch fireflies. Carefree days - how fast they go! We need to savor every minute - life is full of adventure!

thanks for reading and have a wonderful week!

Favorite toy - I just can't pick just one & a GIVEAWAY

Our newest challenge at http://whatisyourfavething.blogspot.com/ and this time we would love to know your favorite toy - in your childhood, now, or even your DH's or child's favorite toy. Show us your stuff!!!!! I did 2 layouts because I couldn't decide on just one toy - I always loved my tricycle and later bicycle - riding with the wind blowing in my face just spelled freedom in my mind!!!! Getting away and riding just for the sheer joy of riding! And once I was out of sight of my house, always with no hands! (Hambly paper, May arts ribbon, Prima canvas word, Cosmo Cricket journaling card, October afternoon alphas, vintage fabrics and buttons)
But then - in the winter when I couldn't go outside and ride, it was all about dolls

I did this quilted fabric wall hanging - I printed the photo on fabric and used mostly vintage (with a few Amy Butler) scraps and laces to make this. The top word is from Prima but I actually embroidered the word Dolls.

The canvas heart is by Canvas Corp - just love their products and Jenn sells them on ScrapGal - I sewed selvedges on the heart and added 2 small jewelry hearts.
I have been extra busy lately - painting, knitting, selling stuff on ebay, and just trying to get caught up in general. I am really trying to make my crafting and painting self-sustainable so I am buying very little stuff, and crafting a lot with what I have - it's amazing how much stuff I have collected over the years. I will be taking 2 watercolor classes (one is a national teacher!) this summer and am really excited about that - so I have to sell lots of stuff on ebay to pay for the classes!
Sometimes I wonder how much other people spend on scrapping supplies - or knitting supplies - or art supplies - or fabric.   How much do you spend on supplies per month - per year?  I would like to know if you subscribe to kit clubs (which ones?) or buy at LSS or Michaels or ?  Do you take classes - online or in person? Please leave me a comment letting me know whatever you feel comfortable with and I will do a drawing on Sunday morning 6/20 for a RAK - one of my aprons and some crafting goodies for whichever craft you specify - scrapping, beading, or sewing/quilting.  I would love to hear from you!
Thanks for reading and have a super week!
ttfn
Chris

Remembering good times

I know that lots of scrappers pretty much scrap as they go along with life - taking pix of their everyday life and then soon after scrapping those photos.  I have quite a few photos of our life prior B.S. (before scrapbooking) and really enjoy scrapping those photos as they bring back such wonderful memories - thoughts of places we visited, friends we made, jokes we laughed about, games we played, dances we danced, all those wonderful little bits of life that are stored in our little gray cells but can be triggered in an instant by a photo or song.  I did the above layout yesterday afternoon for the ScrapGal merry-go-round contest - you do a scraplift of the person on the list in front of you and then the next person lifts your layout - it's quite fascinating to see how the layouts evolve. I haven't scrapped for about a week so yesterday was a catch up day - doing lots of DT stuff - I did 6 layouts in one afternoon - totally amazing for me!!!!!! I knew in the morning that my turn for the merry-go-round was up as I had seen Judean's layout on the thread but I just didn't know what to scrap - so I started working on the Top 10 challenge for the month - 10 things you must have in a vacation - and of course, for me it starts with sea, sand, sun - and then I knew what to scrap for the merry-go-round - I pulled out some old photos of the Bahamas and so many memories flooded back.

Here is the June top 10 layout. I had saved the Coastline wine bottle label from a bottle that we drank last week (Deana, it's great wine!)  I knew the label would be perfect on a layout.
Thanks for reading and hope you are having a super week.  If you haven't linked your favorite shoes layout to These Are a Few of my Favorite Things, be sure to get it done in the next couple of days - we have 28 prizes to give away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lots to do today - a new session of painting classes starts this afternoon!
ttfn
Chris

ScrapGal blog post

Please stop by the http://thegalblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/layer-by-layer.html today and check out my blog post for this wall hanging - just a sneak peek above - you gotta come over to see the rest!!!!!

Basic Grey contest at Blue Moon

Thanks to Julie for letting everyone know about the Basic Grey contest at Blue Moon Scrapbooking - I love the Kioshi line!!!!!

Be sure to check it out http://bluemoonscrapbooking.blogspot.com/2010/06/basic-grey-sale.html

Some days..........................................

I have had an interesting day so far - I did the laundry this morning and as I was pulling a pair of Dan's shorts out of the washer, it felt heavy so I thought he had left some coins in the pocket - NOT! He had left his cellphone in the pocket - it was dead!!!!!!  When he returned from golf, I told him, and he took it very calmly - he still had the last phone he had before he got this one (long story, he left his phone in a golf cart in North Carolina when we were on vacation in 2008 so he had to get a new one here - and then they sent him back the old one so he still has it) so he took it to the AT&T store this afternoon and they reactivated the old phone for free. I was very relieved!
This has been one of those weeks where things happen - not for the best. Yesterday as I was driving to work, my rear view mirror fell down.  Dan says it will be easy to fix but what a pain it is driving without it!
Of course, I realize that none of my little aggravations are as bad as the things that happen to Claire in the Morganville vampire series books - I just finished the first one yesterday and was able to put some of the others on reserve at the library. If you liked Twilight, you will probably like these books by Rachel Caine.
I have been playing with some new ideas this past week - with fabric and lace. A while back Cassie Box (one of the ScrapGals) made a bracelet from a cuff she had cut from a shirt. I liked the idea so I cut the cuffs off of an old white shirt that I had and added frayed fabrics, laces, and Gecko Galz vintage buttons. I love how it feels on my wrist and am inspired to make some more - I started on a black sort of Goth-y one and have ideas for one in shades of pink.   I plan to put them in my etsy shop - got any colors you would like?

I purchased a 100 yard spool of rayon seam binding on ebay and plan to dye it - I can use glimmer mists and also some Making Memories dyes that I bought marked down 90% at Crafts'n'stuff. Don't you just love the names of the things like that - never yellow or red but instead sunsoaked, hibiscus, key lime, grapevine, aquamarine, dusk, and nutmeg.
I have also been knitting quite a bit - 2 projects that must be completed by the end of July - one for vacation and one for a contest. My fingers will be flying. Below is a pic of a scarf that I am knitting that looks like a leaf - it's from a pattern by Jane Thornley, my knitting idol. I would so love to go on one of her knitting trips, like to Santa Fe or Tuscany (she calls that trip Knitaly - sigh...................).

Hope your day and week is going well, and thanks so much for visiting my blog - no scrapping to post today - not that I haven't been - it's just that I can't post them yet but soon................

ttfn
Chris

That time of the month - again!

It's the beginning of June, and another month of ScrapGal challenges and contests! We have a contest going this month called the Craft Fair with lots of sketches and other cool contests, including a merry-go-round - be sure to come over and join in the fun and prizes! The above layout was done based on the sketch for the Fun House contest - Mandy did some great sketches so be sure to check them out each week http://www.scrapgal.com/scraptalk/ . My layout is done on Prima paper with Prima alphas. canvas shape, and laces.

Our manufacturer of the month is BoBunny so go to your stash, dig out some BoBunny, scrap it, and post it in the ScrapGal gallery - you might just be our winner!!!! Here are my 2 BoBunny layouts:

the top one is done on Back to basics paper with Delilah rub-ons and hand cut outs from a page of Delilah paper. I colored the plain alphas with copic markers.  the bottom layout is on Back to basics paper with a painted Glimmer chip scroll that I cut into pieces. the flowers are cut from a Trader Joe's shopping bag.

And now ----- the http://candyshoppedesigns.blogspot.com/  June 1 challenge Razberry Dazzle in honor of a past Lollipop Girl. Check out the color palette - really funky with raspberry, lime, black, and white

My layout is done on Stampington paper with some older K&co chipboard butterflies and sticker along with a handmade ribbon flower and a Kiki arts bling-y heart - so perfect!  Be sure to check out Lynette's latest kit offering

Hope you are having a great week!!!! I am feeling so much better and have been super creative this week - unfortunately I can't show you much of what I have created right now but soon.......... I will say that I have returned a bit to my fabric roots and have been playing with copying photos on fabric-paper so look for some different things coming out of my studio in the near future.  I have also been avidly knitting on my blade scarf and it is really starting to look like a leaf - I will take some close-up pix very soon to share.
I am also listening to Glass Houses by Rachel Caine - the first book in the Morganville Vampire series. Chez recommended these to satisfy that "blood thirst" and so far I am enjoying this one - our library has quite a few of the books in the series so I should be good to go for most of the summer.

I will be back this weekend - I have a busy time the next few days - tonight is our Art club meeting, tomorrow I get my teeth cleaned (I hate going to the dentist!), Sat work at the gift shop, and Mon go to the doctor for a check up. Next Thursday I start a new painting class with many of my artist friends - so looking forward to that!

Thanks for reading and
ttfn,
Chris

These shoes are made for scrapping

The news is out!!!!!  The newest challenge at http://whatisyourfavething.blogspot.com/ These are a few of my favorite things is out - What is your favorite shoe (or in Sarah's case, lack of shoes?) And this time it's extra extra special as we have been published in http://scrapstreet.com/mag10/10june10/blog.htm - the whole design team!!!!!!!!!! And since we are partying, we have 27 prizes to give away - can you believe that? So I guess we'd better get at least 27 entrants!  And oh yeah, the prizes are so cool that I might just have to enter a layout under Hana's name. LOL!!!! Just kidding of course - but be sure to come by and join in the fun! And show us your stuff!