INCHIE NATION!

I was in a swap at swap-bot where I had to do four inchies...you remember....one inch square pieces of artwork. I checked out the profile of who I was sending to and tried to match up her likes. This first one was with a cross charm since she collects crosses.

Ok...I threw this one in cause I liked the vintage ladies in swimsuits and I bought this cool vintage paper with submarines on it.

She liked pink and black together so I made this one.

And she loves penguins (like someone else I know, dear niece of mine), so I came up with this little inchie.

I haven't heard from her yet, but I am anxious to find out if she liked it. I haven't received mine yet, but I do tend to have the worst luck with receiving in swaps.

I also managed to squeeze in this cross stitched bookmark for my grandson. He likes the camo look and those are his initials. I also threw in a book...It's the journal companion for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. His mom said that he actually put down the Nintendo DS to write in this journal....it's a pretty funny journal, like the books.

That's about it for now. Just keeping busy crafting and stitching on the front porch. So till next time, yinz crazy guys...

THANK YOU....

...TO ALL THOSE WHO SERVE OUR COUNTRY
AND HAVE SERVED IN THE PAST
TO KEEP US SAFE AND FREE!!
MEMORIAL DAY 2009

Swappin Frenzy!!!

Well, as you know I'm in this swapping frenzy! My problem is is that I don't get the pics posted quick enough and I promise to try harder. So, with that said, this is a Dotee that I made for a swap. I couldn't wait to show her cause I thought she was so cute. Can you guess the theme of the Dotee Swap? (she's clickable to enlarge)

Not too difficult...it's Alice in Wonderland! I didn't receive mine yet but this was an international swap on Swap-Bot so it may be enroute.
I'm not one to cause a big stink if for some reason I don't receive something in return as I really do just enjoy making and sending things.....and I know things happen in people's lives that cause them not to be able to send. Well, in the case of the mailart swap in the HoE group, I didn't get a mailart, and then the second person who was to make me one didn't send, so the admin of the swap made one and sent it (which I pictured in a previous post!) Well, it turns out I recieved another just recently from France (I'm so sorry I can't read the name on the postcard enclosed) but it is a beautiful piece with my initials. My address was a couple numbers off which could be why it may have been delayed in the mail. Thank you so much, Lamence(?)

This was the bookmark exchange from in the HoE group. OMG...I love this awesome colorful bookmark from Jean.

Jean is from Singapore...I LOVE receiving international swaps!!!! My name is even on the bookmark and she also was so sweet to send some additional goodies. Fabrics are another fav of mine!!! Thank you so much Jean!!!

Don't think I posted this but it's the washcloths I received from the washcloth swap in Swap-Bot! I love cotton crocheted washcloths which is why I signed up for this one. But look, Shannon also sent me these great wooden hooks....I drooled on those!!! Thank you so much, Shannon!

So, now I'm off to work on more swaps I got into....an Inchie Swap and a couple more Dotee swaps! I love to check out people's profiles and blogs and see what they like then come up with something to match. So, enjoy the day and till next time, yinz crazy guys.....

"I'M HOW OLD???"

No, it's not me......but it is someone near and dear to my heart!!!! It's my wonderful niece Alexis and it was her birthday on FRIDAY (I thought it was today...oops!!!)

And not only is she a wonderful niece, she is my "soul craft sista"!!! She is pretty much the only one in my family who is as craft crazed as I am!!!

But even more than that.....she is wise beyond her years! She is as adorable now as she was when she was a wee little one! She has always accepted me for who I am, been totally honest and straightforward with me and has not only been my niece but one of my best friends!! Her husband is awesome and so perfect for her and she has the most adorable son (aka my great nephew) ever!!!

So, with that said......(I won't reveal her age but she is catching up to me..tee-hee!) I love ya, Alexis.......You are my favorite niece (okay, my only niece)....but I still love ya...hope you have (had) the most awesome birthday ever (any many many more healthy happy years)....you deserve it, Girl!!!!!

Look Out American Idol!!!

Happy Birthday, Casey!! Our grandson, who's gonna be a big brother in September, turns a whole decade old today!!!

More creativity...

I'm just feeling so craft crazy and exchanges and swap-bot are definately keeping me busy. Some things I've made I can't show you yet and some things I've just received I haven's taken pics yet...but I will show you what I do have...sound good?
This is from a dishcloth exchange...my partner liked pink and black together so I did a washcloth and one of those dishbottle dresses in those colors. I really liked them and so did my partner.

She also likes fantasy things and this is supposed to be a dragon which you cannot see but trust me it's in there. And then I threw in a little knitted scrubby.

Next, everyone asks about the "children" but I have such a difficult time getting them to stand still for pics. They are soooooooo energetic...unless I came downstairs in the middle of the night and took pics this is what you are going to get. I have a great video that I can't seem to get off the camera onto the computer (it's through a new program which is why) but it's a hilarious one of Eros getting bathed outside! Actually Eros and Sweetie Man and I getting bathed!!!
Anyway, here are the kids for what it's worth...First off is the big boy...Eros Caliente in all his 140 lb glory....what a big baby he is....you should listen to him cry in the morning when he wants me to come downstairs and let him out....definately a gentle GIANT! (that's Chloe off to the side)

Next is our older gal (and my personal fav) Katie Sue. She's our laser light chaser and resident floor licker! (don't ask!)

This is my "grand-dog" Reese E Cup. This picture does not do him justice....he's a beautiful chocolate lab and if I had as much energy in my little finger as this dog has...well.....let's just say I wouldn't be counting calories.

And this is Chloe Nicole....Sneaky Sweet....She's the brains of the group! She's out to get Katie out of the picture and become Alpha Dog! She's also the littlest. She's definately all female in front of you but behind your back.....watch out!!!! My DIL said she already is the ALPHA!

So, that's it for now.....next I'll post some pics of things I received....so stay tuned! Till next time, yinz crazy guys!

HAPPY MOM'S DAY!!!!

Mailart received!

It's a doggone shame that my cyberfriends live so far away. I wish some of you out there lived right next door to me (oh heck...all of you!) Listen to what Jill did for me. I'm in a swap recently for mailart and the person who was supposed to send to me didn't. Then the replacement person didn't. Well, I just figured that I wasn't getting a mailart piece and I was okay with that cause things happen in people's lives and such and I really enjoy giving anyway more than receiving (tho I do like to see other's craft talents!)
So in comes the coordinator of this swap, Jill, and sends me this fabulous mailart piece! So bright and cheery....and it went right through the mail, easy as pie! I had the biggest smile on my face when I got this.

Jill, you did a fabulous job on the mailart and thank you again for being so thoughtful and doing it yourself just so I wouldn't be left out! (check out her blog for the details on how she did it) As I told Jill, it's on display in my diningroom right now but I'm currently thinking of a really special place to put it cause it it so cheery.
So, that's it for now...just wanted to share a bit of my good fortune with you all. Till next time, yinz crazy guys....

BRRRRRR.....

....I'm not talkin' about the weather, yinz guys! I'm talking about my newest find in crafts..."ICICLE DOLLS"! (she kept wanting to roll over so the sharpie is there to hold her up!)

Isn't she cool??? (get it? COOL!) Anyway, found out about about them in Swap-Bot where I find all new crafts anymore! I think I've signed up for about 5 swaps which is my limit on being a Newbie, but once I get done with those I can do up to 20 at a time...WOW!
The Icicle Doll is just like a Dotee but shaped like an icicle. If you Google in "Images" Icicle Doll, you'll see alot more. If you click on my pic, you can get a closer view of her cute vintage face which I managed to copy onto muslin by ironing paperbacked wax paper (is that parchment paper maybe) to the muslin (8 1/2 x 11) and running it through my printer. I plan on making more of these cuties for sure.
The next is a purple and red dotee.....her hair is FABULOUS, don't ya think??? Just yarn!

Don't worry, I'm still cross stitching too! Working on the February TEAPOT...remember I finished the teacup. I'm sorta going backwards cause I'm going to do the ones for January after this. I did the January Teapot for a swap but I'm going to stitch it again along with the cup for myself.

I've been feeling so crafty lately....too bad I don't feel that way about cleaning the house and doing the laundry! Anyway, been wanting to mess around with my watercolors again so I pulled them out and played around a little trying to remember what I did that worked best and what paper worked best. I even pulled out one of the last pictures I painted which was a picture we took a few years ago while in Barbados that I painted.

Not too bad for a beginner. I'm much better and more comfortable with scenery than with still life. With still life I find myself using pen and ink with the watercolors for fine detail. When I was much much younger, I always found myself drawing scenery and sunsets, so maybe that's what I need to stick with. Anyway, I have another beach scene from Barbados drawn out that I never painted so stay tuned and I'll post that when it's done!
Hopefully I've inspired you a bit to craft...helps those brain cells stay alive too....so till next time, yinz crazy guys!

As promised....

.....the Crafty Post I promised you! And we'll start our post with the infamous Dotee Dolls! I just can't get enough of these. This first one is a Dotee I made for my niece and it's supposed to be her son....so it's name is "Owen Dotee". I tried to put on things that I associate with him....truck buttons, sock monkey buttons (which I made out of clay that you bake), his cats that he likes to chase with an empty wrapping paper tube which as you can see is in his back pocket with the words, "here kitty"! His name is in buttons as a tail with a heart that reads, "Made with Love". I had so much fun making this one and my niece loved it.
This next one is "Dice Dotee"! I was sorta inspired to make this one as a good friend of mine was heading to Vegas and when I found the dice beads, this little doll was created.

I'm in a Swap-bot that has to do with purple and red Dotees....not necessarily the Red Hat Society but just purple and red. This was the one I received from Pam and it really came at an appropriate time as I was sick with a head cold and felt miserable and the Sweetie Man handed me this package as I was laying in bed......it definately put a smile on my face! She also sent me a little bag of goodies which I ALWAYS love to get!! Thanks again, Pam

This was my prize from Anna as I guessed what her kitty was looking at on her blog post! This cute little bunny is hanging in my office right now. I was really excited because it was also sent from Poland which is 100% what I am...Polish! Thank you, Anna....I love it!

These are a couple of washcloths I knitted up on the way to Michigan last week. The guitar I did on the way back home for my son and the fire truck I did on the way to Michigan to give to my stepdaughter and son-in-law as he is a firefighter. The patterns are from Dig Knitty..she sells them on her blog and the assortment is unbelievable....anything you can think of! And for me a beginning knitter...so so easy!

That's about it for now. I have to work on my purple and red Dotee so I'll post pics of that soon.

Till next time, yinz crazy guys.......

Where do I begin....

I have so much to show about our wonderful time away in Michigan for our First Wedding Anniversary! I decided to split it up between non-crafts and crafts. First NON!
I'm going a little backwards here but too bad cause this was ONE of the highlights of our weekend. We got to visit Mars Hill Church in Grandville MI. I was honestly like a ten year old at a Hannah Montana Concert. I wanted to go there because one of my favorite Pastors (next to mine own of course) is Pastor Rob Bell the founder of Mars Hill. Well, I really didn't think we would get to see him, but CHECK THIS OUT.....

Do I look excited or what?????
For those of you who know who he is....he is as awesome in person as he is a speaker!
He talked with Sweetie Man and I for a few minutes, took a picture with us and even wanted to write a note to my pastor (inside joke on that one!) He's the founder of this HUGE church and has written books, did short films under the NOOMA name and does speaking tours as far away as Africa and New Zealand. We went to one a couple of years ago in Pittsburgh...it was great! Check out the Mars Hill site and download a few of his Sunday sermons (MP3 and I-Tunes). We are still both reeling a little from meeting him! I even asked him for hug and he gladly gave me one! Sweetie Man told him that he, Rob Bell, was my first anniversary gift, which he got a good chuckle out of that!
Okay....back to the beginning. We stayed with my Step-daughter and family and had such an awesome time. They squeezed in so much for us that we can't even begin to thank them.
First was the Meijer Gardens and as you can see in the pics below, there was a butterfly house, beautiful flowers and incredible outside sculptures. We definately want to hit this again in the summer when all is in bloom.


Our wonderful family....the cute little guy is our grandson!!! Always entertaining us!!!

Sweetie Man taking one of a zillion pictures! I'm going to try and add them to our little Michigan picture square on my sidebar as there were quite a few great shots.

They also took us to the Monaco Bay Restaurant WHERE American Idol's very own Matt Girard plays dueling pianos. He wasn't there of course, but WOW any of those singers could have been a contestant. It was incredible! We even requested a song (At Last) that was played at our wedding and they played it and we danced....so romantic!!! This pic was taken with a cell phone but you can see the back of one of the piano players.

Sweetie Man and I, of course, brought our one year old wedding cake top to Michigan and fed each other a piece.....(go ahead and moan...I know, we're just two crazy kids!)

And finally a picture of my "Pregnant" Stepdaughter (just a little belly now) and her hubby cooking us an Easter breakfast before we were off to church. They treated us like Royalty!!!! We had the second best time next to our Honeymoon!!! So much fun and so much laughing!!!

So with all the Non-crafty stuff out of the way....I'll post what I did in the way of crafts in the next few days, so stay tuned!! Till next time, yinz crazy guys.

From our Family to Yours...

MAY YOU AND YOUR FAMILY HAVE A BLESSED AND HOLY EASTER

One Year Ago Today....

Funny how I feel more myself with you

Than anybody else that I ever knew

I hear it in your voice, see it in your face

You've become the memory I can't erase

You could have been anyone at all

A stranger falling out of blue

I'm so glad it was you

Wasn't in the plan not that I could see

Suddenly a miracle came to me

Safe within your arms

I can say what's true

Nothing in the world I would keep from you

You could have been anyone at all

An old friend calling out of blue

I'm so glad it was you

Words can hurt you if you let them

People say them and forget them

Words can promise words can lie

But your words make me feel like I can fly

You could have been anyone at all

And net that catches me when I fall

I'M SO GLAD IT WAS YOU!

-CAROLE KING

One year ago today, I walked down the aisle

to this song to marry my soulmate.
These words were true then.....

and they are even truer today.
Thank you, Sweetie Man, for an incredible
first year of marriage!
May God Bless Our Marriage and
give us many many more to come!
I love you, Sir Royal Copenhagen!

-From Your Forever Lady Windsong

*Portrait was a 1st Anniversary gift to my hubby and was drawn by a young up and coming artist who is also the son of one of my very best friends. For more information on his work, please feel free to email me.

Zentangles???

Okay...so they are only my first attempt...but you really gotta try it. It's actually really relaxing and ANYONE can do this. You can do it with your kids or you can shut the door when your kids are driving you crazy and do it to calm yourself. I'm actually even carrying around a small notebook and pen to do Zentangles when I'm sitting doing nothing (it drives me crazy to sit and do nothing!) You may be doing it now and not even realizing you are. So check out ZENTANGLES and see what you can come up! Till next time, yinz crazy guys.....

I LOVE SPRING!!!

Definately my favorite season of the year and now with our wedding anniversary falling right in the middle of it, all the more reason to get away. A few ladies asked me about our plans and our plans include an enjoyable drive to our favorite state...MICHIGAN!!! We love going there to visit family and in September there will be an extra family member to visit when my stepdaughter and hubby and grandson welcome a little bundle of joy into their family! We're so excited! So our first wedding anniversary will be spent with our "matron of honor, best man, and ringbearer"! (my maid of honor and my escort down the aisle, aka DIL and Son, on that wonderful day will be babysitting the dogs at home!)
So, with that out of the way, I've been in this crafting frenzy and can't wait to show you some stuff.
First off are a couple more cross stitched kisses. Actually the butterfly I showed before but without the backstitching and the new one, sunny kiss (not sure if that's the name) is on the right.

This is the February Cup O'Tea completed but without the buttons. I know I've said it before, but I just love these colors. I'm working on the February Teapot now.

These are some fabrics I "baked and basted" according to a tutorial on the Twisted Stitcher's site. I love these!!!! The left is a Belfast linen and the right is a 28 ct evenweave. After I did the initial dying process, I was sorta bummed that the mottled staining wasn't there....THEN I baked and basted and BAM....it's awesome! But again, I love this look!!

I even started using one of the pieces above on this New England Village by Carriage House Samplings. I fell in love with at 123 Stitch (best prices and shipping rates ever!!).

And this is a teenie tiny more progress on my Village of Hawk Run Hollow. I figured at this rate I should finish by the time I'm 82. Only 30 more years.

Oh....and check out these awesome Q-snap huggers on the piece above and below. Christina at Forever Cowgirl makes these at a great price and she even has a great sale now. She has many different sizes and fabrics to choose from and they are pre-washed and smell so good when she sends them to you. I love these. (I found out the hard way that pre-washing is important...the one hugger I made, not nearly as nice as these, dyed a piece of mine a nice shade of blue in spots)
These are great and holds that extra fabric that is hanging in the back of your piece that is annoying and gets in the way when your stitching.

That's about it for now though I do have to tell you about an April Fools joke that hubby played on me. I've just joined swap-bot and really like it but I'm new to the site and don't know too much about it. To make a long story short, he texted me from some bogus number saying that he was from Swap Bot Central and I just won swapper of the week and go to blah-blah site to collect my prize. I fell for it so much so that when I couldn't get to the site named, I sent an email to the swap-bot administrators telling them this. Needless to say I sent a follow up apologizing for the inconvenience once I found out I'd been fooled! Today I got an email from swap-bot suggesting I join their NEWBIE GROUP....I think they realized I was blonde!!

Oh, well, that's it for now.......hope you're day is as beautiful as ours is here....till next time, yinz crazy guys.

Quickie...

I have some things to show yinz guys, but I have to take pics of them first. In the mean time, check out this site DIG KNITTY. She has a sale going on through tomorrow and has just about any design you can think of to knit on a dishcloth. The sale is "buy 5 patterns and get 5 free" (buy 10 get 10 free, etc. in groups of 5) Her patterns are around $2.00 each and sent via email. I ordered them and received them within a couple hours and started knitting one. Great service, great site...check it out!
Till next time, yinz crazy knitters!!!