A Forest Frolic

October 1st & 2nd Art Journal

Is it really October already?  It just seems like the days are flying by.  This is why I get started on Christmas gift shopping, card making, and crafting so early.  But even with me 'being on top of it,' I still feel the holiday rush come December...do you feel the same way?  I've been thinking Christmas lately for sure, but I just started decorating the house for Halloween...crazy girl ;) 

Even with this early holiday madness, I've been sure to take some creative time-outs for my art journal...

I used Claudine Hellmuth studio acrylic paint, The Crafter's Workshop templates, Smash tape, and some Tim Holtz stamps for these pages.

A vintage doily with distress ink, Echo Park 'Life is Good' paper, and stitches from my sewing machine...

 

...and an inspiring quote from Thoreau to finish it off...

I love sharing with you the techniques or products I use, so if you ever wonder about something I've posted about, please ask...I'm happy to let you in on my 'secrets.' 

Sometimes I'll get e-mails with people cautiously asking about how I made this-or-that for my shop, or here on the blog, and I happily reply.  If you do ask a question in the comments though, I will reply there too, so other's can get in on the convo.

Ta-ta for now,

Jamie :)

Refreshed

[Cosmo Cricket - Snorkel]

Hope you are feeling refreshed too,

Jamie :)

Mmmm

[Liv.e Designs & Echo Park]

...in my tummy (my fav cocktail from Mozambique last week) !  I sure could use one of these today ;)  How about you?

Jamie :)

Our Sunday Fancy Dinner

We had nothing on our agenda for Sunday, which is an unusual occurance.  So, after Church, we took the girls to Panera for their favorite breakfast sandwich, and then to the pool for the rest of the day (until a big storm literally 'blew' in around dinner time).

We rushed home with our growling bellies and the hubs and I immediately started talking about what to whip up for din.  We decided on eggplant parmesan with homemade marinara sauce (Martha's delicious and simple recipe Found Here).  Mmm...my tummy was rarin' to go and craving that eggplant (ya know how it is when you get it in your head what you want to eat, and just can't wait to have it?!)  Yeah, it was one of those episodes.

But what we didn't know was that our sweet girls were upstairs making invitations to a 'Fancy dinner.'  They presented our formal invitations to us with a menu of; tea party sized sandwiches: a variety of course, popcorn, pretzels with cheese, fruit and chocolate milk...oh, and a special dessert.  They were so excited...how could we turn them down?

So an hour and a half later, here is some of our (half eaten) spread...

It was presented to us in the dining room, course by course, and we could here them popping and blending and doing their thing in the kitchen (that we were not allowed to enter). 

It was quite entertaining and soooo cute...they even got dressed up!  Even though we were starving throughout the whole process and were really tempted to go grab Chinese takeout after it was all said and done, we didn't! 

We just counted our three sweet blessings (and were thankful that they fed us something healthy;)...

This is just a reminder of what I'm on this earth for...and how we must be doing something right!  We are so lucky to have been blessed with those girls.  So, next time I want to scream and pull my hair out because they are driving me nuts...I'll think back to moments like this and take a deep breath.  These moments won't last forever...they grow up so fast!

Jamie :)

Merry Love Day!

I hope everyone is able to give (& receive) lots of love today!  I'm sharing these love cakes with you...

...in hopes that it will brighten your day just a bit ;)

And in hopes to brighten your day even more...tomorrow's daily deal will be these sweet gift tags, for only 2 bucks...

Valentine's (& anniversary, if anyone got married today like me :) day hugs to you my friends,

Jamie :)