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Flowers for Mom

More vintage mother's day images -- flowers for Mom... enjoy!

More Mother's Day Images

Thank you for your thoughts and wisdom on the last post. It made me feel so much better about the co-sleeping!

We were out of town all weekend in Nashville for my FIL's surprise birthday party and we got home late last night and headed back to work early this morning, so I am a bit tired  -- but I did want to share some more Mom's Day images I've been saving for you.

Speaking of mothers, we stopped at my mom and dad's on the way home from Nashville and even though Mom was in so much pain from a longstanding back and spine injury, she got out of bed to whip up dinner for us (despite my protests) and engage Alekha in a few giggles and laughs over an old Furby toy she had. Of course she sent us home with food and the Furby in tow. I am so fortunate to have her, she's a wonderful person, such a gentle and loving human being and I am blessed to have her as a mother. She really is the epitome of motherhood, totally a selfless, loving person who has always put her children first. If you're reading this, I love you Mom!

One last thing -- if you haven't had a chance - go check out Jenni's blog and the JBS Studio Inspiration Blog. Jenni has been sharing peeks of the upcoming May kit - I can't wait to get my hands on it!

 

A couple of quick cards & Mother's Day Images

I had a curious dream last night - it was rather complicated as early morning dreams often are, but the short version was that I had a new baby. Maybe it's because my sister is pregnant, and Bob and I want another one, but we have secondary infertility (we had primary infertility before Alekha). For the most part, I have accepted the idea that I may only ever have one, and if that is the case, I consider myself blessed to have her. At 5, she has definitely become her own little person, mostly independent and full of personality, but there are still glimpses of baby moments that occur. She's still a thumb sucker at night time, (a habit we've been trying to break), still wants her mama to cuddle with each night, and still has the big crocodile tears of her baby days when she is hurt or feeling sad.

We live in a house that has the master bedroom downstairs and the rest of the bedrooms upstairs. I spent the first few years of Alekha's life in a panic that something would happen to her and as a result of us being a floor apart, I wouldn't be able to get to her. Consequently, Alekha came into our bedroom at a rather young age  - and I am embarrassed to admit, she is still there. Thankfully, Bob has always been supportive of the idea and when I fret and fuss about the fact that she needs to have her own bed, reminds me that it's not going to traumatize her to sleep with her mom and dad until she's a little older.  But even though I know she probably should have her own bed - nothing trumps the feeling of cuddling her close at night, gazing at the long lashes on her sleeping eyes and inhaling her sweet little girl scent. Recently, it's brought me close to tears to gaze at her sleeping little angel face and I still can't bring myself to get her into her own bed. I suppose it will happen some day but I realized that I am not ready for it. Probably why I keep making lots of baby cards. Sigh. Fortunately, Melissa Frances has lots of wonderful baby themed products to keep me dreaming of sweet babies. 

Here are a few quick cards I created:

 

 

 

This one has mostly Melissa Frances product, except the sweet little crystal looking heart with the bunny image - those are from Prima. The polka dotty blue paper (scalloped circle) is from Making Memories.

 

 

And finally here are some Mother's Day Images. Most of these postcards are French in celebration of La Fete des Meres, the French equivalent of Mother's Day. Have a happy Thursday!

 

 

 

 

Marie Antoinette Inspiration

I love Brenda Walton's Madeline collection available from K & Company. The colors in this collection are irresistible: pistachio, spring green, robin's egg blue, raspberry and cotton candy pinks, plum and seafoam green. It's like opening a box of macaroons from Laduree. It inspired a whole host of projects last night, and there is more to come! And it's not just the papers. The embellishments are gorgeous. The pleated floral Grand Adhesions are gorgeous little paper medallions, glittered, foiled, sparkling little bits of paper frivolity that I just could not pass up! Here are some of the things I created over the weekend:

A few cards to start off with; this one combines my favorite pattern from the Madeline Collection, with Melissa Frances patterned paper, Melissa Frances resin and rubon; the ribbon is from Michael's. I am getting back into sewing and getting accustomed to a new sewing machine - so as you can see - I have a few stray needle holes:

 

 

Combined the Madeline paper (ooh la la) with Making Memories diecut scalloped paper, more embellies from the Madeline Collection and a bit of pink velvet trim.

I took an old Maya Road tin, covered it with paper from the Madeline collection, wrapped it with grosgrain ribbon and added a ribbon rosette crowned with a Marie image from the diecut glittered paper, and added some bling for a touch of extra elegance. I also punched the smaller medallion circle from the same glitter paper, then used my Quickutz to cut out the flourish from vintage paper, which I colored slight pink with a pink Coptic marker. Finally, I added small pale green pearls on top of the flourish. The tin contains beauty goodies from the Target Dollar Spot - the small rectangular pans of lip balm, a tube of strawberry lip gloss, 3 teeny nail polish bottles and a set of makeup brushes - a quick pick me up for a friend or a sweet and inexpensive Mother's Day mini-gift for Mom.

Here, I used a Jenni Bowlin chipboard heart and covered it with paper, The scalloped paper on the lower half was left open at the top so that I could tuck a photo in (meant to tuck in a few vintage posies which I may still do yet). I added the Eiffel Tower Grand Adhesions medallion, another QK diecut flourish, some pink gems and a Heidi Swapp crystal at the bottom.

Here is another quick project utilizing found treasures at the Target Dollar spot. I found some spring themed paper covered baskets (these came hole punched and tied with a grosgrain ribbon as a handle). I covered them in paper and afer embellishing, added a square cloth napkin with an embroidered edge, a miniature tea cup and saucer, an enamelled tea spoon, and a lavender filled sachet. Perfect and quick Mother's Day gift!

Finally, here are a few vintage images for you - Marie Antoinette inspired; the second would be a good one to use on a Mother's Day greeting. Traveling the next few days but will pop in again as soon as I can, have a great week!

More Gypsy Girls

Here are some more Gypsy images for you - and I think I'll start posting Mother's Day images tomorrow in case you are working on a project for Mom. Have a wonderful weekend - I am off to do some creative playing!

Gypsy Images and Magnolia Pearl

Just a quick post this evening --- the rest of the week is crazy work-wise and I am on the road during the days for the next two days so I am going to try to make it an early evening.

But here are some gypsy images for you... I still have plenty more to post, and hope you can use them!

Incidentally, if you love gypsy style, you may want to check out Magnolia Pearl and designer and proprietress Robin Pearl Brown's blog. The graphics on her site alone are worth looking at! I first came across Robin in a magazine and when her home was featured in a decor feature. I was amazed at the gorgeous layering of color and texture - she has a way of combining things that look lush and luxurious and livable, but never cluttered. I then happened across this book at the library:

It's full of luscious eye candy. The European cut velvets are utterly gorgeous. She uses them to upholster furniture or as sumptuous table coverings. You get a sense of having stepped back in time, and yet her decor retains a modern sensibility. You can also check out her book on Amazon.com: A Bit of Velvet and a Dash of Lace. Better go catch some zzz's - see you tomorrow!

A Gypsy Wind is Blowing...

Jenni's project kit this month included a Top Ten Board Kit from Seven Gypsies and I loved using the book to make Gypsy themed book of my own. For more reasons than one. I am a bit of a history buff and having read in the past about how the Gypsy "Roma" peoples have long had a history of persecution and misunderstanding, it's something I have always wanted to do - to celebrate Gypsy culture. My book celebrates the penchant Gypsies have for finding treasure old and new and creating art. It celebrates the adventurous Gypsy spirit. I will probably add some handwritten quotes or journaling as well - haven't had a chance to do that yet.

I had been wanting to do a project like this with some of my vintage gypsy images and I combined some older patterned papers I had on hand as well. I also used Seven Gypsies' "Gypsy" themed stickers from their 97% Complete line of stickers, plus some other new Seven Gypsies products - index tags and Journal Papers. The Gypsy stickers were something that I received in a package of product from attending the Seven Gypsies Gypsy Caravan event last November in Manhattan Beach, CA. but I think their intent was to introduce it at CHA Winter so the stickers should be out by now. The stickers celebrate the Gypsy junking spirit. I will post more Gypsy images, including the ones I used in the board book, trhoughout this week, in case you want to utilize them too! Here are the project photos:

Missing in action....

Did you have a happy easter? I hope so! Sorry I have been MIA, and thank you for the get well and easter wishes! I ended up having an upper respiratory tract infection, not the flu as I thought, and apparently they don't give antibiotics for that, anymore. So it took me forever to recover - around day 8 I thought I was never going to get over it. Am feeling ever so much better now.

Thanks so much for all the kind comments on the buttons. I hope to put them up for sale in my etsy shop and should get them listed there in the next day or so.

In the meantime, the JBS Studio gallery is up. This month's kit has to be one of my favorites. The color combination is so fresh and spring-like - turquoise, tangerine, cream, spring green and yellow. I think there still may be a few left in the JBS shop here, but they usually sell out eventually so get your hands on one soon, if you haven't. The girls all did amazing things with the kit this month - you'll want to spend some time poring over the gallery like me.

Here are my contributions this month, save my project kit photos which I will share tomorrow so I don't overload the photos on this post. I did a gypsy inspired mini book with the project kit, so check back tomorrow and I should have the pics posted.

I've also been thinking of taking classes at my local Alliance Francaise. I studied French for six years but it's been quite awhile and of course, since I don't converse daily I have forgotten a lot but I am hoping it will be like riding a bike - that once I get back on track that it will come flooding back. The classes run about three months, once weekly for two hours, plus there are opportunities to speak and converse with native speakers of French in a social setting. A great opportunity to learn about France, its culture and improve your speech and pronunciation or to learn French if you've never been exposed to it before. Hoping to start that as well - we'll see.

Here's a little peek at the Gypsy Project Kit (more tomorrow!)