December 10, 2009

Visiting with Santa

What a surprise to see Santa Clause coming out of the door at school on Tuesday! Girlie could hardly believe her eyes! And when he stopped to talk with her she quickly told him what she wanted for Christmas. I took a short video and clipped off a few pictures before Santa was on his way to visit another school. What a great day!
Girlie and Santa in front of school.

Girlie told Santa she wanted a bicycle, Legos, a camera and a cell phone for Christmas. He told her to be a good little girl and he'd be sure to stop at her house on Christmas. Girlie is 2 1/2.

Nick is 7 1/2 and he didn't want to go to the mall to see Santa this year because it wasn't the real Santa, just a helper. He said he had already written his letter to Santa and sent it on my iPhone! I didn't even know I had an app for that...but he found it! Such a smart little guy! I found a copy of it on my phone and saved it.
Then we helped Girlie write her letter to Santa and sent it so Santa would be sure to bring her the presents she wanted for Christmas!
Next we were off to Nick's school to see his Christmas Pageant. Nick was one of the narrators and sang in the choir.
It was all about Jesus in the stable where he was born and the animals sang. It was really cute and we all enjoyed it. Nick's school project was to do a self portrait of himself in the play.

I think he did a great job! He's is so creative and definitely a budding young artist.

Girlie was dressed so cute to attend the performance. We arrived early to get a good seat. She went up on the stage and danced for an hour before the play, entertaining all of us (just like her mother used to do when she was that age...the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree!). She's going to be a singer and a dancer!

~~~

Postscript:
Well it was a great Christmas and Santa delivered the goods! On Christmas day we all went for a bike ride. Girlie got her Princess bike and Nick got his blue Cruiser bike. God bless the iPhone! We're so glad Santa got Girlie and Nick's letters.

~~~

November 10, 2009

BIRTHDAY BASH


Jackie & June
The birthday girls!

Today Jackie threw a birthday bash at the Beach Grass Cafe.

We arrived in Poway at 10 a.m. for Mimosa's & coffee. We were handed a manilla envelope with directions for the Birthday Scavenger Hunt. We had a list of clues and the stores we were to search were all of the thrift/consignment stores in the adjoining mall. We had two hours to collect as many points as possible and return to the restaurant for lunch.


Well, we all had a lot of laughs and some of us gave up and went back to the restaurant early!!! Prizes were given out, birthday cards were opened, handmade gifts were admired and we all enjoyed the day. Especially the birthday girls!

This is a very special birthday card. Jackie and June have been exchanging this same card since 1984! Each birthday, one of them writes a note and sends it to the other. The next year the process is reversed. Such a treasure!

Visit Jackie's blog to view more pictures from the event. I especially liked the quote on her page regarding her special day; "Today is my birthday. I no longer celebrate my youth but my luck of being happy and healthy and having FAMILY and FRIENDS that I can celebrate with."

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Lettering Video #2 ~Teesha Moore

Teesha Moore~ Lettering Video #2 ~

Teesha uses Sharpie Poster Paint Markers. They are awesome!

Lettering Video #1 ~Teesha Moore

Teesha Moore ~ Lettering Video #1~

I have long admired Teesha's work and her lettering videos are an inspiration! Thanks, Teesha!

November 08, 2009

The Goblet Angel

~The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect, but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves. ~C.G. Jung


Another demented toy was the order of the day. It didn't take long for me to start digging in my stash of treasures for just the right items to create her. I grabbed the glue and playtime was on!

My new demented toy, "Goblet Angel"

The silver goblet is the image of 3 skeletons twisted together. I added one of my precious doll heads and embellished her neck with antique pearl trim. Her wings are made from a used coffee filter! I love her!!!


(Click on the image to see it up close and personal)

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August 14, 2009

The Art MeetUp Girls

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Once a month, on the second Tuesday, the "Art MeetUp Girls" get together to create and play and laugh a lot!

The Girls: Jane, Bet (2nd from left, middle row), Sally, Jackie,
Elena, Maryam, Kat, June, Melanie,
Kathleen, Dawn, Bonnie, Georgia, Matina and Gloria.
(Not everyone is pictured...just the gals at the last MeetUp!)

Jackie is head mistress and always comes up with a new project for all of us to do. Sometimes we take turns teaching a class. Her studio is chock full of goodies that she so generously shares with all of us to use in our projects. We have such a great time!

This is a "shout out" to Jackie!
Thanks so much for being such a giving person
and sharing it all with us!
We LOVE you!
~~~
Be sure to visit: The Art MeetUp Blog
~~~

May 30, 2009

"Our Excellent Adventure"

By Nana, Nick and Girlie
On Sunday, May 17, 2009

Nana came to visit us from San Diego, CA. for three weeks.
She flew on an airplane to Charleston, SC. We picked her up at the airport. While Mommy and Daddy were in meetings in Utah, we spent 4 days together having fun on our own!
Our adventure began on a Sunday morning...

As we set out to explore the sites of South Carolina, our first stop was at the Hungryneck Antique Mall on Highway 17 in Mt. Pleasant. Girlie loved this large, black iron dog in front of the store. She had her purse and was ready to shop!
We spent an hour exploring the aisles...there were so many things to see. We were looking for just the right treasure to buy with our bag full of quarters!
Oh, no! An alligator tried to eat my arm! (Just kidding!)

"Blue lawn furniture and there's a dolly!" squealed Girlie.

"Nana, look at these old timey trains!" Nick had found a real treasure.

"I like this pretty, yellow birdbath, Nana!"

Nick searched for trucks and cars, and bought 3 airplanes for $3.oo each and an old time Chrome Steel "Steely" marble for $1.00. Girlie looked at lots of dollies and then found a dolphin key chain with shells inside. She said it was beautiful and it was only .50 cents! Nana bought 2 salt dishes for mommy's birthday. When we came out of the mall it was pouring rain! A nice lady with an umbrella walked us to our car.

It was good we had our umbrellas in the car because our next stop was outdoors!
We were in search of a Venus Fly Trap and tropical plants, so we stopped at Abide-A-While Gardens, a real jungle!!!A little rain won't stop us from having fun!

We fed the fish in the Koi pond with the free food provided by the nursery...they sure ate a lot!

Wow! So many fish!

It was interesting hearing about the plants. But we couldn't find an insect to feed to the fly trap so we decided to come back another day.
The only real "tropical" plant the nursery had was called a Bromeliad. They were very colorful.

All that exploring gave us a real appetite so we were off to find a tasty lunch. We love Chic-Fil-A but they are closed on sunday.
Next door we found Arby's and decided it was time to try one of their Junior Roast Beef sandwiches which Nick and Girlie had never tasted.

They were awesome...Nick even wanted a second sandwich and Girlie ate every bite of hers! We decided to head out in search of a most delicious dessert, so we were on our way again.
(If you click on the picture you can see it up close and personal!)
The windows are covered with rain but it didn't dampen our spirits!


We crossed the Isle of P Connector on our way to the Isle of Palms beach. And there we found it!

Just what we were looking for...ICE CREAM! Ben & Jerry's has the best. Nana had Cherry Garcia, Nick had Double Chocolate and Girlie had Very Vanilla Ice Cream!!! It was sooooo good. Nick put 4 quarters in the meter where we parked the car and we headed for the beach.

I found some shells!

I found some sand!

And I found some water!

It was raining again, but we didn't care, the water in the ocean was wet, too! We played for awhile and then wanted to hurry and go back across the connector to get to the Boiled Peanut Man. Nana and Girlie had never tasted them before. They are a big treat in the south! Nick said they were really good, so off we went to find the peanut man. And WE FOUND HIM!This was the sign we saw on the side of the road. We stopped to get some peanuts.

1 bag, please, of your extra special boiled peanuts!

Yummy good, I really like them!

We had such a great day. One we will never forget.
We headed for home and when we reached Mt. Pleasant, we turned into Ion and drove to our house.
After we looked at all of our pictures from the day, we decided to start our journals. We had saved something from every place we visited during the day so we could use it in our journal.
What a pretty color. This will be my page for Ben & Jerry's.
We turned our shirts inside out so if we got any paint on our clothes it wouldn't show on the good side!!!

Nick is working on his page for Isle of Palms.

Then comes the gluing and cutting and pasting
and cutting and...well you know!
Our journals will take us a few days. Be sure to come back soon and see how they turned out. Now back to work!

~TO BE CONTINUED!~

And here they are! All three of us made our own journals. We used all of the pictures we took and put them into our books. Now we have a memory of our Excellent Adventure!

Nana's book.

Nick's book.

Girlie's book.

Now we can look at our books and all of the pictures of the places we went on our adventure, over and over again! What a fun day we had together!
~~~

May 02, 2009

"Uni" and PAPER TALES!

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What a beautiful day today in sunny California! A great day to get out and explore and enjoy!

I started my day in downtown San Diego in Little Italy at Dick Blick's Art Store, picking up a few items for a collage I'm working on. I needed some water soluble oil pastels and found a nice set with my 30% off coupon. The day was off to a good start!

Strolling down the main street (India Avenue) I noticed an outdoor market. What a buffet of sights and aromas! Fresh organic fruits and vegetables, made to order while you watched were crepes with sweet or savory fillings, colorful fresh cut flowers, a French Patisserie with the most scrumptious pastries, an Italian man making Panini's, another man who introduced himself as Dave the butcher selling rabbit and lamb he had raised himself, a lady selling fresh caught Sea Urchins (Uni) with fresh samples (my first taste of Uni!).


A demo on how to cut it open and clean it was so interesting.



After the demo there was more to see...there were aged cheeses and rustic artisan breads, artichokes as large as my head (I'm not exaggerating!) Fresh almonds and a variety of nuts, and the the stalls went on and on!!! It's open every Saturday from 9:00am to 1:30pm on Fir Street (which crosses India Avenue). I'll definitely be back soon~

Then I was off to visit a little store in the Sports Arena area, next to the Soup Plantation. It's called Paper Tales and they were celebrating their First Year Anniversary!
The make-it-and-take was darling, a 4 page book with adornments which was created by K&Company. It was the stores gift to loyal customers and their way of saying "Thank You". They served refreshments, cookies and a grab bucket with prizes and discounts for your purchase. Julie was running the store this morning and was waiting for the owner, Michelle, to arrive for the afternoon shift. Such nice people and the store has such a warm and cozy environment. What an eyefull! It was hard to take it all in...so much to see!


This cute little bird was a gift from the store!
Lots of glitter and jewelry and charms along with fabulous papers.

After my visit to Paper Tales, I headed toward Poway to check out the sales at Cool Scrapbook Stuff and to JoAnn's Fabrics for a couple of books. This was 50% off coupon day and I picked up a tape runner and two great books, and with my shopping completed I was ready for lunch.

All in all it was a great day as I headed for a favorite, little Bistro, "La Petit Corsaut", to put my feet up and do a little reading with my lunch!!! Bon appetit!


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