spring is springing!!!

Good morning everyone! Happy Monday! Woke up during the night to LOUD thunderclaps and lightening....and pouring rain....there are flood warnings out since the ground is still in it's frozen state...our spring thaw is underway!



and new life is rearing it's head in my garden! i planted 144 tulip bulbs last fall...and i guess i did something right as they are all poking thru the ground...(well i didn't count them...but there are lots of things sticking thru the ground!!!!



it's a nice way to start a week!

hugz

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING BLOGLAND!

IT'S FRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDAY!!!! Hope this finds everyone doing well... I finished 16 atc's yesterday...I'm going to a LIVE ATC swap tommorrow! My first one, although it seems like i've been ATCing forever! (theme for the atc's is RANDOM WORDS)




Hope they like my cards! I just joined a MINIATURE swap over at Vivian's place! We have to create a miniature (6" or under) dollie, bear, elliefant, etc...) with a prop! Looks like sooo fun! I also joined a JOURNAL swap over at Heather's Nest!

My Spring Fling Thing (try to say THAT fast three times) for Peggy is ready to go also...but no pictures as yet..well they are on the computer..but i want to suprize her first..hee hee...

Gotta send out a shout out to ROBBIE (the myspace thing won't work..darn...but his email is... ugoboomin321@sbcglobal.net ...cuz he is just not a blogger yet...lol...but he helped me do my music thing......give him a shout......will make the boy special..and i can just see him getting all these messages...lol...from my friends! lol...makes me grin...(wickedly) to even think of that! oh yes...PLEASE DOOO email THE BOY!

Here is another wall in my studio...(there are more pics down yonder in another post)




My youngest daughter, Danielle, is doing a photo study of light...
here she is in her "ghostly" self...at a theatre in town where she was doing a photo shoot...


and here are a couple of the light photos she has taken...






and with that i'll leave you with a big HAPPY WEEKEND HUG...

happy wednesday...or is it thursday?

goodness...this week is a mess! give the kids a week off and my mind goes to mush...although i've tried to plan things...for each day out of the norm...

i added a couple things to the bathroom ....it's getting there! i need to find the perfect frame to frame the sheet music on the toilet tank top...behind the candle holders...needs to be just the right one...and until i find it...(thank goodness rummages and flea markets will start soooooon...) it will wait...

(you can click on the pic to make it actually viewable..lol..from one that has to sit on top of the screen to see most things AND has bifocals!)



talk to you later!!!

SPRING BREAK SWEETNESS...

Since this week is spring break and princess maddysen has no school...and shannon is working days this week...maddy and i have plans for special things to do!!! the weather is beautiful today...thermometer read 55 at one point!!! (last year on this date...it was 80!!!!!!)...they are calling for 1-3 inches of snow early tommorrow morning...but time will tell...

i finished an art doll...yesterday for a lady who gave me a bag of vintage spice containers on our local freecycle! she had a special container from her grandma...so i told her i'd make her a doll from it!

presenting LUCILLE!!!


lucille's body is a vintage anne page spice canister, she has glass and clay beaded legs and vintage rusty key arms...her head is felted and i braided a tiny braid that i wound for a grandma bun on the top of her head...hope she likes her!!!

today maddy and i made a cake...but not just any cake...it is a
mint grasshopper fudge cake!!! (maddy did make a face when i told her it was grasshoppers...lol)

white cake with a bit of green mint cake...




lotta finger lickin and bowl lickin going on...








VOILA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YUM YUM YUM!!!
little miss suzy homemaker...lol



AND OF COURSE SIRR MAXX DIDN'T WANT TO MISS OUT!!!



grasshopper fudge hugz!

happy monday!

sooo sad to see Easter slip thru days soo quickly...my sweet easter decorations are still on another time and will stay up a bit longer....until i think it is supposed to be celebrated! so if the days have crept into red, white and blue decor....i will know that possibly the summer approaches...now summer knows the way to celebrate! from memorial day thru the fourth of july and labor day....a patriotic display seems to show no rushed time contraint...

i'm sure that most of you have witnessed the auction of a cornflake shaped like the state of illinois..for something like 1300.00...lol...well yesterday as i whipped up a batch of ranch potatos...i was pouring some flakes into a baggie to be crushed for the topping...when what did my eyes spy? could it be...OH GOODNESS...
YES!!!! IT IS!!! i quickly summoned the family into the kitchen...

in the box of flakes i saw a flake that was shaped like the state of FLORIDA!!!

my husband was in total disbelief...UNTIL I SHOWED HIM..THE PROOF...



MICKEY IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING ON MY CORNFLAKE! proof positive!...and i always told my kidlets NOT to play with their food...(hee hee)

so thus i challenge each of you to open your box of cornflakes and see what is living.(ewwww let me rephrase that)..or rather being "represented" in your box...

hugz til next time! now go check those boxes!!!
p.s. my florida flake will NOT be going to auction...it's too priceless and also...has become a divided state of the union, when hurricane maxx tried to consume it...

HAPPY EASTER!!!

from the very hoppy tiara'd easter bunny!!! (whose name is PRINCESS)



FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS!

i'm dreaming of a...white....

EASTER?


shannon's sentiments....as enscribed on her car...



Official total from yesterdays welcome to the first day of spring storm?

18.5 inches in west allis, wi...geesh...

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL...

BUNNY HUGZ

GOOD FRIDAY

May you all be blessed in this Easter season!

All our snow had all but disappeared...dwindled to just a bit of tarnished white puddled in a pod of dry fiberous grasses....

temps have been in the 40's...and spring WAS in the air...

LOL

(at this point my thoughts of springtime grandeur amuse me...as my thoughts are the only place spring lives today)

We are basking in the eye of a snowstorm...they can't give us exact amounts...anywhere from 8-18" due...will "subside by 2 a.m. Saturday morning"...business' are closing...(schools were already closed for spring break) and the air is filled with white streaks (flying sideways)....

Saw the REGULAR mailperson...(the one that HATES delivering packages) coming up the walk with a PACKAGE! Ran to the door...but too late as he PLOPPED it into a drifted pillow of white...Oh how angry I was...he could tell...although that just feeds his resentment...

MY PAPERWHIMSY SHADOW BOX IS HERE!!!!!!!!
Flew in with the storm from AUSTRALIA!!!! BARB THOMAS! WOOO HOOOOOOO....
I tore into the box....and found




the wrappings were just beautiful! and the tag splendid!!!

I unwrapped the bundle of lace and found....
SHEER MAGNIFICIENCE!!! i felt compelled to twist the purple wired ribbon into a heart to show how much i love it all!!!



Now i still haven't gotten to the box itself yet!!!

This is sooo special!!!! I have it on an easel until I find that perfect spot to hang it!



THANK YOU BARB SOOOO MUCH!!!!! I LOVE IT ALL!!!

BIG HUGZ!!!!!!!

the studio in...

bits and pieces...

Thinking it is going to take me a couple of days to be at ease enough to take baby steps to show my studio...with the weather being so cold and the studio being in the basement...i tend to quickly gather what i need for a project in progress and scrurry it upstairs...then put everything from that project into a bag and take it back down without putting it away...I'M SOOOO BAD...well...in keeping with julie's challenge...i am going to reveal bits and pieces of my studio...be prepared...

here is the outside of my studio "wall"...before you go in...see my "room" is actually a freestanding compartment...i.e. shelving wrapped in grey stretchy fabric (got that whole wrapping idea from christo..lol...but it does make it nice and cozy and i can hide in my element...

I have two vintage coats that i use to put special things on creating a backdrop for them...i usually have a clock cradled in the arms of one...(the arms are pinned together) but it was upstairs for battery change...




and here is my fabric wall...



more to be revealed tommorrow....
someday i want a sunny room UPSTAIRS...!!! with a big comfy chair so i can sip fruity drinks with tiny umbrellas in....

hAPPy sT. pATRIcKS...DAY...

WEARING THE GREEN TODAY to avoid the pinches! Today was a mixture of emotions...
Today would have been my nieces 39th birthday...we went to the cemetary to visit her stone...she passed away suddenly at the age of 20 (actually one month before her 21st birthday...cause listed on her death cert....is VIRUS...we wanted to hear a blood clot or heart something...virus is just scary..gives light to just how fragile life is....she was playing volleyball in a league, she turned to look at her mom and her little boy and and went up to serve the ball and then fell...they say she never made it to the floor...she didn't smoke, drink etc...she was getting married the following august and had just moved into her new house two weeks before...

....fast forward to the cemetary ...years ago...my sister had put a cherished picture of her with her little boy on her grave...and the people at the cemetary had cleared off the graves and tossed the picture into a trash heap...a day earlier that they had said they would...(we had planned to remove it) so...with my niece always being a practical joker...we came up with the idea of how we could carry her birthday celebration a bit further without interference from the grave clearers...we sprinkled her grave with bits of green glitter...and we could hear her say..."oh let 'em try to clear that off!!!"...


I realized i had never posted maddy's art that is on display at the Administration building! As we viewed all the art that was posted there were only ten from her school! Here is auntie kaleigh next to maddy's art...hmmmm wonder which is maddy's?



Auntie Kaleigh got her arm tatoo finally finished...She has become an art gallery in her own...



She has 6 tatoos at the moment...the poem she has tatooed on the above picture reads:
I KNOW WE ALL CAN'T STAY HERE FOREVER
SO I'LL WRITE MY WORDS ON THE FACE OF TODAY
AND THEY'LL PAINT IT....

hope everyone got enough leprechan hugz today...and weren't tricked by the little green guys...

big green hugz to all til next time!

the ABC's of me!

I was tagged by caleen to complete this survey...although i may have changed up a couple of the letter words.. heheee...(hey this is supposed to be me, right?)

I'VE BEEN TAGGED--- ABC'S OF ME!!

I have been tagged by Caleen: ABC'S OF ME!

A- Attached or Single: Attached
B- Best Friend: yes i think i could be one...lol
C- Cake or Pie: pie
D- Day of Choice: Thursday...best rummage day of the week!
E- Essential Item: Cappucino
F- Flavor of Ice Cream: Can't eat ice cream...
G- Gummy Bears or Worms: doesn't matter the shape it all goes down the same..lol
H- Hometown: West Allis, Wisconsin
I- Indulgences: Art Magazines, cappucinos, movies
J- January or July: JULY
K- Kids: 4...three girls, one boy(plus a son-in-law and an attached boyfriend)
L- Last Movie seen in theaters: JUNO
M- Marriage Date: August 23, 1980
N- Number of Siblings: 4 (two deceased)
O- Oranges or Apples: Oranges
P- Phobias or Fears: being late for anything...(if i'm not there 1/2 hour early there is something wrong...(i LOVE the previews at movies!) AND CARROTS...(had a nightmare that a giant carrot was chasing me and made the mistake and told the kids...now i get TONS of carrot stuff..)
Q- Quote: Your never to old to have a happy childhood...thank goodness....as i sooo still need one!
R- Reason to smile- Inner peace
S- Season- SPRING!
T- Tag four- RACHAEL, DEBBY, TAMARA, PATTI
U- Unknown fact about me- I lived in Germany for 3 years (our youngest daughter was born there)
V- Vegetarian or not: NOT...
W- Worst Habit: worrying about everything!
X- Xrays or Ultrasounds: depends on the situation...
Y- Your favorite food: Italian
Z- Zodiac: Taurus...


Now, I'm done... It is your turn ladies...

hugz

Saturday!!!

Hope this finds everyone out there well!

Finished a fabric page for the roundrobin over at fabricbookroundrobin one of my yahoo groups...this one is for Kyla Her theme is Ladies of the Sea...




I was tagged by Jan over at polkadot barn...to write a six word memoir....hmmmm only SIX?????

so mine would be......

CREATE YOUR OWN HAPPY CHILDHOOD TODAY!

Now the rules are:
1. Write your own six word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible, so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.
4. Tag five more blogs with links.
5.Remember to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!
I am inviting the following friends to come out and play.

Show us your memoir, girls:


debby


kari and kjisa


judy


peggy

and RACHAEL...MS FIJI 2008

GO WRITE YOUR SIX WORD MEMOIRS....

working on a couple more things this weekend!!!

hugz and have a great day!

pennies to buy more COOOOOOOKIES!!!

Maxx has taken a liking to helping put our extra coins into a bank...He tries soo hard to get them into the slot...they do push really hard...and he even let out a little shudder and a little man grunt when he was trying to push it into the bank... but when he does succeed..he gives this little HAPPY DANCE!!!

see utube video below

PENNIES FOR MORE COOOKIES!!!!!

(the utube video is a bit wider stretched, that it should be but i got it to work!)



hugz til next time!!!

it's WEDNESDAY!!!!

Maddy went back to school today so that means i'm on for picking her up and going to dance class...

Well...today i saw the mail truck pull up and lo and behold..we had a new mailguy!!! Seems very nice...didn't ask if he was a replacement...or if the other guy was just sick of bringing me boxes...lol...

Got the usual kind of mail..mostly ads...then the UPS TRUCK pulled up and Robbie yelled that he was bringing a box...so i went out to open the door and he was getting back in his truck..lol...he yelled that he had left the package at the side door...

I received a gorgeous nest from STACY! Click on her name there...for her etsy...and click on her name here... stacy for her flikr photos! Her art rocks! Here is the nest she made for me!


this is the presentation box that my nest was in..


top of the box...



the nest




found a place for my new nest




THANK YOU!!! STACY!!!

hugz til next time

HAPPY TUESDAY!

Was a happy mail day..(well not for the post man..hee hee..he feels that packages are for UPS and NOT for USPS...SO...he gets all upset when i get packages...) Received my sweet nest from Caleen!!! Beautiful sweet nest!!! and lots of goodies tucked in too!!! Check out her blog!!! Just AWESOME!!!







THANK YOU CALEEN!!!!!!!!!!

then I received my easter basket swap from Jessi!

There was sooo much love and attention to this basket...it was all LAVENDER and JAM-PACKED!!!!!!
Sit back and have a peek at the pics!



WOWSERS!!! She made me the sweet wooden egg that she embellished! I promptly hung it behind my Reve sign...


Here you can see the sweet lavender birdie house she made...it fit perfect into my white roses wreath hanging on one of my vintage windows!




and check out this precious tea cup and saucer!!! and the bunny candle looks like a big gumdrop!!! (and smells like one too!!!) ((and he's LAVENDER!!!))



Jessi also sent goodies for Maddysen, Maxx and Xander!!!! they truly enjoyed them all!
we took maddy's goodies with us when we picked her up from school...

she was sooo taken with her gift..and as typical after a hard day in first grade...she fell asleep but hung on to her sweet hannah purse!




In this last week I also received my Art Dolly from Fran! When i found out from Vivian that Fran was my swap partner, I was sooo intimidated...!!! My home is now graced by Miss Violete Carmela!



isn't she LOVELY!!!!

I forgot to mention that when jessi sent me the box of goodies...some of the multitude arrived safely in a sweet LAVENDER wire basket! so it was only appropriate that our thank you to you all would best be said from.....



our spring hearts!

big hugz from us all!