super exciting news...

I'm so excited to share this news with you...

Mary Engelbreit invited me to join my friends Charlotte Lyons and Kathy Curroto as a teacher at her workshop this summer! June 9th and 10th, at Mary's studios in St. Louis. Pinch me...am I dreaming? I still can't believe it...little ol' me.

Here's what I'm teaching...

Charm Sampler
Thread your needle and get ready to stitch, stitch, stitch! Amy Powers will guide you through the process of making her signature grid-style sampler. Don’t worry if the last time you embroidered was decades ago. Amy will show you how embroidery can be fun again. It’s not about perfection…it’s about expression! Additional supplies needed: An assortment of needles: from a larger tapestry needle to a super fine one for beading; your favorite palette of embroidery floss; bits of your favorite fabric, buttons, beads, charms, and other embellishments; large embroidery hoop

(did you spy this sampler in the background of the Pop Star post from Valentine's Day?)

 

Tiny Worlds

Delve into the imaginary world of Amy Powers as she shares her secrets of making itty bitty scenes using clock faces, spools & drawer pulls as tiny pedestals. She’ll also share how to create a shadowbox to capture a sweet moment in miniature. Additional supplies needed: An assortment super fine paintbrushes; strong holding, quick dry glue; any special tiny embellishments you may have; special sentiments or phrases cut from books (music lyrics or other words to make into tiny banners); magnifying glass on a stand (optional)

I hope you'll consider joining us!

Space is extremely limited for these classes....just a handful of students. They are both day-long (6-hour) classes. For more information, check here. Registration begins on April 3rd. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

At the last minute, on my way to dash out to Alfredo's school Valentine party, I got the idea to make a Valentine gift for his teachers...cherry soda (not wine even though it's called Cheerwine...read about it here) with a label that says "You're a pop star in my world".

I used a doodled frame from my friend Pam's Summer Doodle Bundle (found here).

Pam's actually teaching a doodle class this Spring at Handmade U. And it looks from Pam's latest blog post that she is making a special doodle from each student's name! Looks like so much fun!

Hope you have a very sweet Valentine's day! It's an extra special day for us because 16 years ago, Rich asked me to marry him!

love bugs

I'm pretty excited to be a bit ahead of the game with Alfredo's Valentines.

I can't take even an ounce of credit for this idea...I found it on Pinterest this morning and knew immediately it was the best idea for Alfredo. It was so easy since dandee even provided a printable on her blog. The bugs are from those Toobs...I picked up two of them at Michael's and we have some bugs to spare!

The cockroaches are so icky...

I'm not sure if we can bring ourselves to use them on a Valentine! 

karate/ninja birthday!

(camera found!)

I can finally show you how much fun Alfredo's karate/ninja birthday party was.

I'm so glad a friend told me about this place for birthday parties...it was so wonderful. (Virginia Karate)

First of all, Alfredo got to keep this super cool karate suit...

Sensai was really fabulous.

We could invite lots of kids (26 little friends came to the party!)

I made headbands for all our little guests and it turned out to be a really good idea since the sensai could then call them by name!

I can't say enough about how good this guy was...he kept almost all 26 little enthralled for 90 minutes!

After learning to count to 5 in Japanese and doing some warm ups, they got ready to learn some real moves...

Rich bravely volunteered...

And just look what happened...!

Then the little guys got to try it out...

And it was so much fun...

They did some kicking too... (Here's Shelby looking a lot like Karate Kid!)

After all that fun, they worked up a real appetite.

I made each guest a little bento box...

And they got to practice with chopsticks!

Let me preface this by saying I'm not a baker...

But when I found out Alfredo would be cutting the cake with a Samurai sword (and some help! Can you believe how cool this place is for a party?!), I just knew the cake needed to be something fun. This is two bundt cakes cut in half to form the curves of the body and a rounded cake for the head. I made all the cakes from scratch and use so many strawberries you wouldn't believe it. I was so tired of looking at this thing by the time I was done!

But just look at how much fun!

Lots of great memories made that day, for sure!

(So glad I got my camera back!)

lost my camera...

ding dong dang it...I lost my camera! I think it got left behind at the karate studio where we had Alfredo's birthday party. I have so much to show you from the party too...I hope it turns up soon. It was such a great party.

AND...We're leaving early tomorrow morning for a quick trip to California. I really hope my camera turns up before we leave.

So I'm going to take a little blogging break...I'll check back in next week. Take care...