Happy holidays

Here's my little tree. I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season.

New goodies

I love all of the Tim Holtz stuff. I wanted to play along with the 12 tags swap this year,butI was a little late. I still might do my version of them soon anyway. I hope everyone is having a wonderful Yule today!!!

Early Holiday Gifts-yay!!!

Here's a little something that arrived today. I have always loved trees and in the last year or so the raven has appeared to me many times and I am feeling a much closer connection with it now.

My first gem show

I have always wanted to go to a rock and gem show, but it never seems to work out with my schedule when they are around. This year it was perfect timing, and I was able to go. I picked up these pieces while I was there. My favorite is the amazing quartz piece, and my new selenite piece. Both have amazing energy that I just couldn't resist.

Birthday Time

My boyfriend and I both love Jimmy Buffett, so this year I ordered him a Jimmy Buffett themed cake, and he loved it. Our birthdays are pretty close together so we usually celebrate together. We went out for a nice dinner at a place called Schooner's on the water, to a ball game, did some shopping, visited the pumpkin house, and later in the week I surprised him with concert tickets to see Trans Siberian Orchestra (TSO) all in all it was a wonderful time.

The Pumpkin House

I love visiting the Pumpkin House near Halloween each year. It's a little house in Ohio, and the pumpkins go up in number each year. This year there was 3,030 carved pumpkins. It's a wonderful thing to see. I'm amazed each time we go! This year my favorite pumpkins were all the various birds people carved, and I also loved the simple peace sign pumpkin!

Fall Thoughts

I know I haven't posted anything in a while, but hopefully I can update more often coming up. I'm playing catch up with posts today though! The first picture is of a little squirrel looking in the window at us when we woke up one morning. I adore squirrles, so I loved that this little guy let me take a picture of him. I talked to him at the window for a while, and he just stood there looking at me. The next picture is just a cool older house I liked at the beginning of our ghost walk on a tour one night. Next was just a view of mushrooms in the yard. I get so excited when I see them-I know silly me! Here's a view of the lake I often go to in the fall and just sit and meditate when I can. Last of all here's a picture of some new fall and Halloween decorations I picked up for the year.

Cards and coasters

.....In an online group I'm in we are doing some swaps ahead of time, and getting ready for the holidays. I made the red bird paper ornament for the Yule swap. The cards are for Halloween, and the coasters or candle tiles whihc ever way you choose to use them were done using alcohol inks, then stamped in black Staz On ink, and sealed with a coat of glossy sealer. I had a great time making these swaps and just mailed them out to my partners. I can't wait to see their creations as well.

My beaded jewelry creations from last night

.....Here's a few creations from last night. I'm focusing more on beading now so I can sell some at the fall fest.

Lunch and some art

.....I had lunch with some cousins today, and this was my yummy white chocolate cheesecake dessert. I expected white chocolate cheesecake to be white though, but oh well, it was very yummy. After lunch we went down to a pottery painting type place called Kiln' Time where each of us painted a charger type plate and a little dragon. I did a goddess design on mine. I am anxiously awaiting it being glazed and fired now. I'll post a picture of how they turned out when it's finished.

Traveling Again

Recently I took a little trip and checked out the Greenbrier Resort in W.V. It is stunning. We took the tour of the place, and it blew me away. We had lunch at a restaurant there salled Sam Snead's-apparently he's a big golf guru. I don't follow golf, so I don't know, but the food was yummy. Spending the night there was way too rich for my blood, so we headed on to downtown Lewisburg, and found several cool art galleries and a little store called All About Beauty. It was a beauty shop and new age store. I found a couple of cool purchases there. Next I drove over to Beckley, W.V. and took a tour of the Exhibition Coal Mines which was wonderful, and then to Hobby Lobby for some fun crafty stuff for future projects you will see in the pics. All in all it was a fun trip.

Working with clay

I have been trying to work with clay a little more these days. Here's a few of my creations.

Halloween craft ideas

.....I'm ready to get started on my Halloween projects for the year. I love, love, love these new Martha punches for the season. I am not a big fan of hers exactly, but she puts out some of the best punches around. I do lots of paper crafts so these are great for me. I have also really wanted to learn to sew lately. I have never even picked up a needle other than a long ago crooked apron in home economics class-haha! I picked up a DVD and a book to help me. I love DVD's because I am such a visual learner. I am mainly interested in making a Halloween purse this year. I found some fabric, and was able to use my half off coupons on it all, so it wasn't a bad deal. I also found some wonderful bird fabric that I just couldn't pass up either. I will keep everyone updated on how it goes. If anyone has any purse making tips please let me know!

Summer Travels

My boyfriend and I took a little trip this summer through VA and WV, and saw some beautiful sites along the way like the waterfall and Seneca Rock State Park etc. you can see from the pics. We were making our way to take a scenic train ride on the Potomic Eagle train. While on the train there's an area you pass through that people usually spot bals eagles flying around, and we did!!! I loved seeing them in their natural element. All the scenery on the ride was great, and the train ride provided a nice lunch etc. for us. We went to a little train festival for a bit, and then headed from WV on to Maryland the next day to ride behind a steam locomotive. I forgot to take a picture of that one, but it was nice too. I wanted to head over to a restaurant called The Crabby Pig where I tried some Maryland Blue crabs for the first time. I'm a big crab leg eater, but having to hot these with a hammer and all was a whole new experience for me. We also stopped by a local art gallery there where I found some hand forged silver goddess jewelry, and I bought a picture of an owl by the artist that was there that day for my boyfriend. We were also able to add a quick visit to Harper's Ferry, W.V. and tour some of the local battlefields, see the quaint little town, have lunch at a cool place there, and visit several more little artsy stores. We hiked up to Jefferson Rock, and took a few photos, and on the way down is where I noticed the cool tree roots. I have a thing for trees. I also picked up the little tree pendant you see in the last photo to remember my favorite tree of the trip by. We had a great time, and I can't wait to go back again sometime.

My atc's for the latest swap

Here's a few atc's (artist trading cards) I made for a recent swap.

Spring 2010

Wow, it's hard to believe spring is finally here! Here's a photo of my spring meditation space, and the spring cookie pan I bought and made a ton of cookies in. I also found some cool pretzel/chocolate stick molds to use. I also tossed in a picture of a spring colored bracelet I made some friends this year. I have been feeling so crafty lately!

Holiday 2009 stuff, but in 2010

I have had some camera problems so it's been very difficult to upload many pictures once I started this blog. I hope I have those worked out as of today, but we will see. Anyway here are some pictures from the past few months. The first is of my 3-D egg nog cake, the second is some cards I made to send out.