a blog shower

My sweet friends Charlotte Lyons and Diane Wells have teamed up and are throwing a blog shower to help us get ready for our little friends. Isn't that so nice?

If you are interested in joining in the fun, please email Charlotte or Diane. CLyonsWeb@aol.com or DWells@awhimsicalgarden.com

ikea shopping list

After cpr and first aid training tomorrow, we are heading to Ikea to pick up a few things for the room....

goody goody gumdrups!

Just take a gander at this bounty of booty I got in the mail yesterday. Isn't it an absolute treat for the eyes?

This is just my kind of fun...I could spend hours just looking at each piece and dreaming up some kind of project for it. If this is your cup of tea too, just head on over to here and you'll have more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

hey!

How do you like this new picture of me? It was taken by Kim Haynes at Silver Bella. She's so sweet and easygoing. Can you believe this...she squeezed me in by doing this photoshoot at 7:30 am Sunday, just before she hit the road to go back home. How wonderful is that?

I was feeling just a bit under the weather today...you know that kind of under the weather that just so happens every 28 days or so. So, instead of running around and doing very much physical work today, I've been perched here by the fireplace, eating cinnamon toast and drinking hot tea and working on my website. I decided to change the frontpage to go directly into what was the "shop" page. It just makes more sense to cut to the chase.

I also made illustrations for all the categories...


Hopefully tomorrow I'll be a little more back to normal because geezy pete, I have a whole lot to do. Just thinking of it all makes me tired.

just in...

Isn't this wonderful? My friend Wendy made this ornament for a swap at Silver Bella. When I saw it, I fell in love and knew I must share it with you. She made just a few...find them here.



Here are some other things that just arrived this week...

Wonderful tokens for easy and quick gift giving...


Something sweet...



Find all these new things here.

how the paper houses are made...

Hello, friends. Want to know how I made the houses?

I used scrapbook paper and cut the shapes out freehand...a rectangle for the house bottom, a triangle for the roof, a small rectangle for the door, squares for the windows, etc. I glued all of the small pieces to the house base (house bottom + roof) using a glue stick. Once all the pieces were secure, I outlined the bits using a charcoal pencil. I sprayed a fixative to seal the charcoal (otherwise it smears everywhere and makes a big mess). Then I put the whole house through my Xyron sticker maker using a repositionable cartridge. That way they are easily moved around or even removed, if need be.

I stuck them to the wall and Ta-DaH!

This is definitely a project the children can help with. I used lots of different papers but I especially love the Small Wonders collection from Brenda Walton. This is a great way to use up scraps, too.

Another idea is to make the doors and shutters openable and put real pictures in the doors and windows.

the room, part two

Here's part two...houses!

I was totally inspired by Catherine's fabulous house paintings...see them here.

















I wanted it to feel like walking into a storybook. I was going to keep adding houses all around but Rich had a better idea. He envisioned some of the hills with kids flying kites and tossing balls and having lots of fun. He said that way the children can imagine that the pictures are of them. I love it!

We had our physicals yesterday, complete with flu shots and a tb test. On Saturday we'll get our cpr and first aid training, and then head over to Ikea to get the bedding and accessories. We're shooting to be ready by the first of the year, but, at this rate, it might be a lot sooner!

the room, part one

I just finished painting the room and here's how it looks.

I'll be back later this afternoon...I have to run off to an appointment now.

paint

I woke up bright and early and got to work right away. I've already gotten all the orders to go out today packed up and ready to be picked up. The rest of the day is all clear for painting.

I'm going to dash out now to buy the paint. I never fret too much about paint color. I know I should but I just usually eye it and hope for the best.

Hopefully I'll have photos to show you this afternoon.

gingerbreadland

We made our gingerbread houses on Friday. It was a lot of sticky fun. Maggie and Seth ate more candy than they stuck to their houses. The frosting was tricky...it was either too thin or too thick and a few times the whole houses collapsed. The kit that came with a foundation (from Target) ended up being the easiest to build.

Hope you're having a lovely Sunday. I'm taking it easy now but I think later I'll prep the room for painting. Maybe. 'Though this fire feels so nice and it's been a while since I've read more than a chapter at a time of my book.