Category Archives: Creativity

End of Day 2 Christmas Fair!

Good evening!

Well, it has been another exciting day at this year’s Douglas County Christmas Fair! We have seen all sorts of sights today, a little girl passing by in the sweetest baby pink cowboy boots, a little spider-man asleep on his daddy’s shoulder, alittle girl in colorful striped tights and a tu-tu, a little batman in a stroller yelling out for his daddy because he was missing, and more recently a little girl who couldn’t have been more than e who was wearing an orange boa!!! Seriously, I never realized Roseburg, Oregon was such a happening town!

I know that it is the kiddos that I am focusing on today, but a lot of our sales have been to the kiddos today, our Christmas ornaments, grab bags, elves with candy overflowing from their heads are really a big hit in our booth!! We have also sold out of our glycerin soaps, and I am thinking I will be out of earrings by the end of the day tomorrow!! Not that I am complaining by any means! Yeah!!! 😉

We have one more day to go, but tomorrow only goes until 4 and then we are all heading back to my sisters’ place, getting into our PJ’s putting our sore feet up and hanging out visiting together! Whew!! That will be fun!

You know every year we do this fair, we get to December and tell each other that we will never do this again, until we actually got through the show. Well, this year I am already pre-planning next year!! It is easy to see which booths have done well, and which ones not so much! I want to be one of the ones who do well, so I am thinking some more pre-planning and organizing is going to be necessary to make that happen!! 😉 We will see if I can convince the sisters that it will be worth it – we will see!!!

Anyways, something else that we did that was a lot of fun – we all got airbrush tattoos!!! We giggled the entire time and even got the airbrush artist laughing too! What a HOOT! 😉

Jennifer got a pretty design that she chose because she really liked it!

Trina got 2: a blue penguin, because she LOVES blue penguins, and a rose, because she was feeling in a Phantom of the Opera mood!!!! 😉

I got a Hawaiian floral design, which I thought was kind of cool!! 😉


Anyway, it has been another long day so I am going to call it a night!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

Our First Day at the Market!

Good evening!
We just got home from the Douglas County Christmas Craft Fair, and we are all exhausted!! Matter of fact, I may have just dozed off twice in the past 1/2 an hour. Anyway, we had a pretty good day! Our sales are doing better than we did last year, and having a double booth seems to really have made a difference in how customer are able to move around our booth and interact with all of us girls!!

Instead of spending a lot of time writing, I am going to share with you pictures of our booth!

We have all sorts of gift baskets!

Assorted crocheted hats!

and scarves!

Nativity sets!

Neck warmers and hand warmers!

Glycerin soaps!

various ornaments, and gift bags, which is a favorite with the kiddos!!

I have SOOOO MANY more pictures that I am excited to share with you, but I can barely keep my eyes open!!

As I slink off to bed…

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

Setting Up Shop!

Good evening!

So, my sweetie and I made it to Roseburg! WHEW!!! We headed straight to my sister’s house, picked her up, and long story short, Jennifer, Trina, Sweetie, and myself all ended up at the Douglas County fairgrounds so we could set up our booth! Of course I forgot my camera, so I will be taking pics of our booth first thing in the morning, but I have to admit that we were all pleasantly surprised that we were able to make it look so nice, PLUS fill up a double booth!!! My sisters have been hard at work creating handicrafts all year to make this weekend possible!

I had the opportunity to pull all of my old jewelry out to sell in the booth too, which really made me nostalgic for creating jewelry again! I will make sure to take pics of those too!

I wanted to especially share one thing that happened this evening that has really made this trip worthwhile already and that is, after we had finished setting up the booth, Austin met us at Denny’s and we all sat down for dinner. As we all held hand so my sweetie could pray over our dinner, in that moment, as I was holding Jennifer and Trina’s hand, I had great feeling of being blessed that I was able to be in that moment with my family. It was a priceless feeling that I have really been missing lately! God is good!! 😉

With that, it has been a long day, and we have got to get up very early tomorrow to go finish any last minute preparations, so I am going to call it a night and get some much needed sleep!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

A Flurry of Activity!

Good evening!

This evening has been a FLURRY of activity!! My sweetie and I are frantically getting everything ready to go down to Roseburg for the weekend. My sisters and I have rented two booths down at the Douglas County Christmas Fair, and we are going to be selling all sorts of hand made goodies! I will make sure to take plenty of pictures all weekend of everything and anything! Our good friend, Don is going to be coming over and babysitting our two little girls – thanks, Don!!! So, I know they will be in good hands!

We still have some more housekeeping to do before we go, and I need to make sure we get EVERYTHING packed into the minivan, because I am leaving work at 1:30 tomorrow afternoon to head out, and we are leaving straight from there.

I am not exactly sure what to expect from this Christmas bazaar, but I am excited to be getting to spend some time with my sissies, and to be able to sell some of my hand made bead and wire jewelry. It has been sitting in the house, some of it for up to five years, I have got to sell it, and make room for new creativity!

Back in 2007, I had opened my own jewelry business, and I did pretty well at making a nice selection of treasures, but because of some health problems that my sweetie was having, I decided that I needed to focus my attention on getting him better, so I put all of my jewelry-making supplies away. I get a little sad whenever I see them now, because I really do enjoy making jewelry, but really haven’t given myself permission to get back into making my little baubles! I think that after this weekend, that is going to really change! I would love to see myself start making jewelry again, with a focus on soldering, mini collages, ephemera, personalized memorabilia, and inspirational and sassy thoughts! 🙂 That sounds like SO MUCH FUN!!! 😉

Anyway, as much as I am enjoying my view of our lovely Christmas tree, and part of my book collection (see picture above), I have got to get going and get the rest of my to-do done for the evening, so I can go to bed before midnight!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

Treasure Hunting!

Good evening!
The other day, I had the opportunity to go treasure hunting, and I thought today that I would share two of my finds with you!

I found these two spectacular pieces at Aunt Bee’s here in town! I was absolutely flabbergasted when I first laid eyes on them, I just KNEW they had to come home with me! They were a little spendier than I am used to spending on a whim, but I knew that they would be a great investment and a great addition to my ever growing art collection. That sounds so cool to me! 😉

These pictures make me long to visit Europe. I dream of what it would be like if I could live there someday. Maybe live in the countryside of France, or the hustle and bustle of an Italian Villa, or maybe even live on a remote and isolated  emerald isle of Ireland. DREAMY!

I can imagine myself walking endlessly, just enjoying the scenery, or holding hands with my sweetie as we enjoy the sights of Europe together. Reading on a blanket under a shady tree, or sloshing in puddles while wearing my wellies, and the rain is coming down pitter-patting on my umbrella, that of course I would have right on hand! I would love to see the magnificent architecture, and learn about the vast history, and I would be proficient in every language – ok that may be pushing it, but I think you get what I mean. I would love to be blend in with the locals, and live the culture the way that they really live it. Living life, loving life, enjoying my friends and family! That would be AMAZING!!!

Someday, you will see. I am not sure how, and I am not sure when, but it will happen!! And when it does maybe I will be able to see these actual scenes first hand. For now, I will settle with enjoying my European view through these small paintings that I will truly treasure! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

My Tree Is Done!!

Good evening!

It has taken me three days, but I have finally finished decorating my Christmas tree!! WHOO! HOO!!! I know it is early, but I really have needed a little Christmas spirit early this year! 😉

I wasn’t going to put up our tree this year, because I was thinking that it is an awful lot of work for just my sweetie and I, and we aren’t even going to be here at Christmas, however, when I expressed my thoughts to my sis, Alex she convinced me that even if it was just to enjoy the Christmas tree while I am reading on a quiet evening – it would be worth the work!!! 😉 She was absolutely right! AS SOON as I got the Christmas lights on the tree I was IMMEDIATELY put me in the Christmas spirit! It also helped that my sweetie helped my put the tree up this year, which I REALLY appreciated it!!

My theory on decorating my Christmas tree is to basically put EVERYTHING and ANYTHING that I LOVE on the tree!!! Which means that every single solitary inch of that tree has something on it!!

I love to tuck little treasures and momentos into our tree too. I especially LOVE pictures of my sweetie and from various different Christmas’!

We are such babies in this picture. This is one of our first Christmas’ with my sweetie’s family.

I also have lots of little signs, and this little red bird. One of my pastors, growing up, used to tell me that the little bird in her tree would wake up every evening and fly to the north pole to report to Santa whether or not we were behaving or not. Even though we don’t have children, I sometimes wonder if our little red bird flies to the north pole while we sleep and give a full report of our behavior to the man in the big red suit too!! 😉

Oh, and with my love of Santas, how could I not at least have one or 10 Santas on my tree??? 😉

Here is our Christmas star. Everyone always makes fun of me for this topper. Apparently it isn’t quite as flashy as the rest of our tree, however Jason and I bought this tree for our very first Christmas almost 17 years ago and every year I pull it out and PRAY that all of the lights in it still work. Every year, I am always amazed when they do!! WHOO! HOO!! 😉

When I describe our tree to anyone who has never seen it before, I always say that it looks like a jewelry box exploded ALL OVER our Christmas tree!! I still think that is pretty fitting!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! ;-)

PS. Thank you, Alex, for cheering me on when I was having a moment of weekness!! I dedicate this blog posting, and my lovely Christmas tree, that has made me ABSOLUTELY SMILE to you!!!You were 100% right!!! I love you, Sissy!! 😉

Dreaming of Christmas!

Good evening!

I woke up this morning with a head cold that has made me move a little slower than normal, so I haven’t gotten as much stuff done around here as I was originally planning on. Namely, getting my Christmas tree up and decorated. It is up, but it is bare!

Anyway, I decided to spend a little time on Pinterest today, and wanted to share some dreamy Christmas pics with you! 😉

Don’t these just make visions of sugarplums dance in your head?? Oh, I know it is not yet Thanksgiving, but I am just soooo excited for Christmas to get here!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!!  🙂

A Candlelit Evening At Home!

Good evening!

I am having a nice quiet evening at home. The house is clean, I have all the candles lit, and I am sitting on our sofa with the girls sleeping next to me. My sweetie is in the dining room with his friend, Don. They are trying to fix his laptop.

I am watching a documentary on the life of Frank Lloyd Wright. I have always been fascinated by his work and his architectural style. For those of you who may not know, Frank Lloyd Wright, was an innovative American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. He had a very distinctive arts and craft style, but he combined that with great rooms, and open floor plan living styles, which really went away from what was happening at the time. He used a lot of horizontal lines, low ceilings, stained glass windows, cantilever rooflines and distinctive color schemes. He was quite a visionary! I dream about living in a house similar to one of his homes.

Anyway, this week is the week of the Breaking Dawn opening. My sweetie and I already have tickets to the midnight showing on Thursday evening. I know, we are a little insane, but we just really have so much fun making an event out of these movie openings. We agree that the movies may not be so fantastic, but we both really enjoyed the books, and the stories are really a lot of fun to fall into! We want to take the time this week to watch one of the movies each evening before Thursday night, and then we will be at the theatre, early, with our folding chairs, kindles, and a deck of cards so that we can entertain ourselves while we are waiting for the opening of this next movie!

What else? Well, maybe that is all for the evening! Don is just now getting ready to leave, and Jason is getting ready to have us watch Twilight this evening! While I enjoy some silly time with my sweetie…

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! ;-)

A Lazy Naked Sunday!

Good evening!
I have had the best kind of lazy naked Sunday! There have been no plans, no agendas, and no to-do lists! THAT IS THE BEST KIND OF SUNDAY!!

I have been spending some time this evening perusing new blogs, and websites. Places that have inspired me to do a little decorating for the Winter holidays! I thought I would share some of these with you!

Dreamy Whites

One that I just happened to stumble upon is called Dreamy Whites. I am in LOVE with this site. It is so romantic, chic, and so homey looking! I just LOVE this site!! This site has inspired me to cover my red sofa with a scrumptious white blanket!! Aaaah!!! LOVELY!

Peony & Sage

Another site that I have been enjoying is Peony & Sage, they have some very beautiful vintage-y fabrics! These make me want to have throw pillows done for the entire house in these great fabrics!

The Paris Apartment

The last site I want to share with you this evening is The Paris Apartment. I know, I know, I have talked about this site before. This is actually one of my FAVORITE sites!! I could just jump right in to anyone of the lovely vignettes that she posts! I would be SUCH A HAPPY GIRL!!! French chic!!! DIVINE!!!

I am going to go do a little more inspiration induced perusing!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! ;-)

Crossing Something Scary Off My Life List!

Good evening!

You remember I had told you my original plans were to stay close to home and just be homey, but I had a little change of plans!! This morning Jason and I had gotten together with our friends Errin and Dawn, for breakfast! Well, we were having a lovely time when, I am not sure how the subject came about, but Dawn blurted out that we should go down to the tattoo shop to get my tattoo. You know the one that has been on my HUGE life list, the same one that also made it on to 36 before 37 life list??? I am not sure how I let her talk me into these things, but I found myself waiting in the tattoo shop while the tattoo artist drew up a sample of the design I described to him.

After sweating it out, for what seemed like an eternity, he came out and showed my his translation of my design, and I LOVED IT!!! I knew that it was now or never, and the cost was a very minimal amount, something I had on my in cash (which is saying something because I hardly ever have cash), so I just

HAD TO GO FOR IT!!!

Dawn went with me into the back where I hopped up onto a medical looking table, and the tattoo artist transferred his drawing onto my right foot, exactly where I wanted it, and I knew that if I was going to chicken out, now would be the time to do it!

BUT I DIDN’T!

Before he started, I asked him how badly will this hurt? and he responded by saying that most people describe it like scratching a really bad sunburn. So, I thought, ok, I can handle that. I layed back and let the man do what he does best!! By the way, Dawn is with me this whole time and she is taking pictures, videos, asking me questions, which I honestly don’t remember answering, but she had promised not to leave my side. I was going to hold her hand, but I was terrified that I would crush her little hand!!

Anyway, long story short, I DID IT!! For the most part it really didn’t hurt so bad, except for maybe a couple of moments, but of course, Dawn got pics of those moments too! I have to say that I have inherited a trait from my family, that when we are scared or are in pain, we become really quiet and delve inside of ourselves. Today proved no different! Dawn was surprised that I was able to stay so quiet.

The whole tattoo only took about 10-15 minutes, it is isn’t very big after all! That just would not have been my style! and when he finished, I saw that he did a PHENOMENAL job!!! My tattoo is of 7 tiny footprints walking across the side of my foot. They represent 2 things to me, the poem of The Footprints, where Jesus carries you across the sand when you are not strong enough to carry yourself, and it also represents my Ohana, my family. Those that are my family by blood, those that are family by marriage, and those that are family by choice!!

I want to always to be reminded of them.

Both those that are still with me, and those who have gone on before me.

They are why I do what I do.

They are why I fight with all of my might.

They are why I constantly try to better myself.

They make life worth living.

I love you all, I truly hope you all know who you are and how much you mean to me! 😉

I love you!!!

With that said…

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉