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YIKES! those went fast. I'll have more up tomorrow, and 2 very similiar pink and silver bathroom packs, only with mermaids instead of people. Thanks!
The above two sets are one of a kind. Additionally I've listed a large yet very affordable pack:
FREE FIRST CLASS SHIPPING ON ALL!
Even I, devoted grandma that I am, said; "What?! Another graduation? For heaven's sake didn't we just have a big 'do' for preschool graduation?" But of course, ceremonies for Kindergartener's are expected. Last night the school had a big Honors ceremony, which also included graduation processions for the Kindergarteners and the four 8th graders who are going on to HS. (Yes, I said 4). Here is the entire student body:
The front row are the Kindergarteners. The highlight of the evening (for us, anyway) was those 12 standing up and reciting 26 bible verses, being prompted only by the letters a to z.
I can not watch them without tearing up a bit. They're just still so sweet and pure. Then all of the children cleared the stage and the little ones put on their caps and gowns and marched back in to the tunes of Pomp and Circumstance
The teacher is talking about how 'they were her favorite class ever'
And then she said nice things about each one individually
They would then walk over to the principal for their diploma (and a nice hug)
And that was that!
Silly little boy. I just love him to pieces.
'Morning! I just added a button on the left (scroll down) to catch your eye in case you haven't yet seen Jenny & Aaron's latest fun art swap. We have til the end of Saturday, June 9 to sign up. Should be fun (it always is!) It seems swaps are about all I create for these days, so I keep signin' up.
John's out of town on his annual golf convoy from here to Reno and back in a week. Among other things I'm using the time to catch up on movies that would normally make him moan, "Aaawww Jen! Why can't we just watch Bruce Willis' latest movie?" Music and Lyrics with Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant was about the only one I'd give a thumbs down to. I think mainly because I didn't feel any chemistry between them. It was just fluff, really. But the other three I've watched I would recommend highly (well, if you like serious, thought provoking, intricate relationship stuff like I do). The Girl in the Cafe and The Secret Life of Words were both really good...similar to each other, too. Older man, younger woman, both drawn together by their sad, somewhat broken states. I found them believable and thought provoking. Learned a thing or two as well. Last night I watched The Painted Veil and it was fascinating. Not only the relationship of the young couple but the presentation of white people in early 20th century China. Overall, John doesn't know what he's missing with this genre of relationship drama. (which probably explains why he always seems so happy :-D)
Today I'd like to share with you some great swap results. The first package to arrive was from my sweet partner Estella in PA. She graduated HS last week and will be attending Swarthmore in the Fall. That girl's gonna make a difference in this world, I just know it. She's half Japanese so she put together a fun gathering of Japanese goodies for me.
She's really a creative girl. The back of the collage is a Liquitex Paints sample card. The scarf is made from old kimono's she'd acquired in Japan. Just makes it all seem more 'real', than to run to Michael's or the scrap store and grab the latest and greatest (Like I often seem to do!) Then I received my SWEET fairy jar from the lovely little melfie. Oh I just love this. I'll show you the pics and I'm sure you'll love it, too
Aahhhh. Simply perfection.
Do you not LOVE that blue flocked vintage wallpaper!? Oohh I'd give anything to have some. So I could hoard it. ;-) So, if that wasn't enough, she also made me a sweet monogram collage that coordinates with the jar
Love it! You do good art Melissa. I'm so glad to have some of it!
I also did a little one to one magazine exchange with Carol in Germany. She wanted a copy of Somerset Life so I went to the scrap store and bought one, thinking I'd glance at it before I sent it, but it was SO full of wonderful eye candy that I had to go back to the store the next day and buy one for myself. (had to, dontcha know). I threw in as many ME Home Companions as I could cram into the flat rate int'l envelope, and here's what Carol sent me in return.
I wish you could feel the 'heft' of these. Each page is so wonderfully thick and glossy. (They'd be awesome for handmade envelopes!) I sat leafing through them in bed last night and found that I really zeroed in on particular little details in the rooms and gardens and I'm pretty sure it's because I couldn't read the words so I had to study harder for clues as to what the article was about. Well, my vim and vigor has been completely restored regarding swaps beginning with this happy post thanks to my lovely new friends. Thank you.
There are two more openings for the fabric swap...Hurry! Full up as of June 7.
Well, I did some much needed maintenance around this site. First thing that's most noticeable is the banner up above. I snapped a pic last night of my favorite shoebox view in my sewing nook. I can't seem to stop collecting these sweet little doos and dads from the past. I know I probably should stop else my home will start lookin like the thrift shops from whence all this came....those brooches are my best favorite all-time ebay purchase EVER. They came from England and I can't pick a favorite. I just really L*O*V*E my english double ab brooches. What I paid for 12 of them should've been what one would cost but the seller had taken a bad photo and I took a chance. oh...enough about my brooches. I also finally realized that maybe only half of the links in my bragging category to the right were showing up. Since we closed our real estate office it only made sense to close the website, so everything that had been hosted there now shows up as a red x. Those links all work now. Most importantly I changed my 'other peeps who blog' by lumping them all under one heading. When I first started this there was a definite line between my online buddies and artists whose work I admire but as time goes on the line gets fuzzier and fuzzier. I have friendship with some very talented people here in blogland and besides, it just looked rather discriminatory to segregate like that. I mean; when I find someone I want to link to so I can remember to check in on them routinely, I shouldn't have to spend any time at all deciding if they're 'friend' or 'inspiring'. YaknowwhatImean? So. Sorry if I offended anyone in the past. We're all equals now. :-) So says me.
Good stuff found while thrifting lately. When you see these next two china treasures you'll see why I have to just keep bringin it home.
SWEET, huh? You gotta know I ran right home and checked ebay for more of this happy pink and yellow pattern, but couldn't find a single piece. These cost, as they usually do, 39 cents. And that's only when I miss half-off day. Crazy! I don't know how they pay for the lights!
Okay, this next one did cost a bit more (antique shop as opposed to thrift shop) but I figured all those 39cent purchases in the past made it okay just this once
You couldn't have left it in the store either, hummm? I've got it on the shelf under my bathroom mirror and I just noticed how perfectly placed those #1 and #2 bottles are. That's kinda funny! Bad bad birdie! Oh. moving on.
The other day John and I loaded up my truck with the tag sale leftovers from last weekend and right after we dropped it off at the cancer society thrift shop we were driving down the street and a woman was taking this out of the back of her car and into the humane society thrift shop:
I rolled down my window and asked "Are you donating that?" to which, without skipping a beat, she replied "No. It's for sale to benefit the animals." HUH? A sphincter says WHAT?! (wasn't Wayne's World full of good quotes?) If I hadn't wanted it so bad I'd just have rolled my eyes and said "God most people make my butt hurt!" like I usually do but I really wanted it so I hopped out (luckily John was behind the wheel) and followed her in and said "Are you donating that for sale?" and the thrift shop employee said "Yes. It's fifteen dollars." sold! Cute, huh? Now we just need to find a red cowboy hat. :-)
I'll close with a shot of my sewing table and what I'm working on. Am trying not to repeat any fabrics but that's going to be a lot of different fabrics. Still not through cutting tho. I'm pretty sure I want to do another row around each block, but then of course I most likely will have to repeat fabrics.
Speaking of fabrics, it's not too late to join the swap listed below! Closed.
Was a day late mailing 2 of the 3 but it wasn't for lack of tryin! The swap that I did mail in time was marilyn healey's vintage paper swap. I've seen a few pretty pictures posted around blogland...I didn't photograph mine all dolled up in ribbons and forget-me-nots but I did snap a shot of the pile before packaging
It was fun going through all my piles and files and drawers and boxes. Yowzers, was like a smorgasbord...a piece of this and a piece of that, before I knew it I'd actually put together TWO sizable packages!
One night a few weeks ago I was hopping around from blog to blog and somehow (can't for the life of me retrace my steps) came across the free people 'vintage travel' swap. My first freak-out came when I got my swap partner, an 18 year old girl not quite out of high school. But then she and I connected by email and I checked out her MySpace page and all I could say was "wow". You go check her out for yourself and see what I mean. Read her self description along the right hand side. It really made my heart grow 2 sizes bigger to see that there are still kids out there that care about being creative and smart and kind and capable. I don't get to see a lot of that up here. So glad I 'met' her. Quotes almost always serve as my springboard when trying to come up with an idea and this one by RWEmerson was a message I wanted to convey to Estella before she heads off into the world of adulthood.
That's rather a crappy picture now that I look at it! So yeah, I did mosaic work. The quote is actually a good clue as to what the piece is, but I'm not gonna show it til she receives it in person. I had a bunch of already broken china out in the garage from y2k (remember saying that 7 years ago?) so please don't give me too much grief for breaking up that fab aqua dots and pink roses plate. I know; WHAT was I thinking!? Argh. Things change. I know it was y2k because I had a postmarked envelope of 2" clear glass tiles out there. I used Lazertran to transfer the quote onto the glass tiles. I had fun doing it. (I promise the overall pic will look better!)
The third swap I joined was Little Melfie's jar fairy swap. That one had me stumped up until just yesterday, which was mail-out date so thank goodness I did come up with an idea. Little Melfie herself (sweet Melissa) chose me to be her swap partner so I really wanted to do a good job. Again, the quote was what finally gave me the nudge; Garden fairies come at dawn, Bless the flowers then they're gone. Last night when John was heading up to bed he peered over my shoulder and asked "watcha makin? A ship in a bottle?" lol. This was fun once I finally realized what I was doing.
I know, it's hard to tell what's what...again; after she gets it I'll share the full on shots and hopefully you'll like it :-) Hopefully Melissa will like it!
Just sent Caleb out the door to a birthday party with his mom. Twin boys whose father coaches our t-ball team. We went to their fifth BD last year. I never saw so many presents in my life. This year we were told even MORE people were invited so we didn't think they'd mind if we sent a smallish gift. I told Caleb to pick a movie at Target and, weird little man that he is, he picked The Corpse Bride. lol! I really dig it but hopefully the parents won't have an issue with it. So speaking of weird, if I were ever to answer one of those "7 weird things about me" I've been getting tagged with for the past 2 or 3 months, I'd have to come up with the words for this:
See how I just rolled the jiffy pop and the movie up in the nearest sheet of tissue paper, but then spent half an hour cutting MY FAVORITE discontinued Foof paper to mimic the corpse bride, and then glitter, etc. I think John's right; I really am a nut.
