Marie arrives...

This beauty is all mine! My swapping partner, Rochelle, made a wonderful collage!

The papers are beautiful and I love the Maria blue.

She included so many lovely details, especially the glitter and bling.

Another closeup....don't you love the velvet ribbon and jewels?

This is the Marie collage that I made for Rochelle....she decorates with red.

So, I tried to give her collage a bit of red coloring and accents.

Rochelle, it has been a pleasure trading with you and I will

most definately enjoy this collage! Thanks!!

A sneak of Marie and basket swapping...

Only a small sneak peak for my Marie Antoinette partner...Rochelle.

She loves red, so this Marie collage is all out red!

Switching gears to the fun May Basket swap, hosted by Kari over at A Year

of Color.

My partner Debra loves robin's egg blue and I was very lucky to find a few

special items in her favorite color.

I took this plain brown bird and painted him in blue and then added

a little glitter for a nice sugared look!

A little tag or bookmark.

Here's the basket....I altered a plain white Target basket and then

added a little trim, flowers and bling.

Now for my turn! I received a pretty pink basket full of goodies.

Notice the pretty vintage purple hat with flowers...very lovely!

Debra made this precious mouse pincushion and I really love it!

Another close up to show all of the epherema, a cabinet card,

altered journal and a pretty floral corsage. Thanks Debra for

such a great swap! I will truly enjoy all of these wonderful gifts!

Vintage hanky holder, a hat, a necklace, a sneak peak & hurdles

I recently purchased a hankerchief box and a glove box, with
the intention of repurposing them for my stash of vintage jewels
and buttons for future projects. I also picked up a few buttons
and some pretty silver trim.



Finally, I was able to purchase a vintage hat full of lovely flowers for a decent price. I have seen plenty of them at antique stores, but too pricey for me. I can see these flowers on future projects.

I won this beauty from Karla. She has a monthly give away and I must say she picked a great gift for me in March! I love all of the dangling charms.

This is a sneak peak for Debra. We are participating in a May Basket

swap over at A Year of Color. I altered this white basket to robin's

egg blue....Debra's favorite color. More photos of our swap to come.

And finally, I am sharing a photo (Jae S. Lee, The Tennessean) of my sweet daughter. She took top honors at a local track meet on Saturday. She was given the honor of "Outstanding Female Athlete"! What an honor for this hard working gal.....and yes her dad, brother and mom are very proud of her!!

SILVER BELLA.....

I'm in for Silver Bella 09! This is where I will be in November and so looking forward to the wonderful workshops and meeting the Bellas!
Here's a sneak peak of the workshops being offered. Check out the workshop details here and this is the site to register.

Easter greetings and banner swapping

I participated in Kari's banner swap with A Year of Color. This is the banner I made for my partner Nicole (no blog). I made it with double sides. She has 2 daughters, so this side has sister images on it.

This is the reserve side....LOVE.

I love this little birdie.

Angel sisters are so sweet.



Here is my pretty banner from Nicole. I love the Happy Spring theme!



This is my favorite with the cute kitten. Happy Easter wishes to all!

Object of my desire and remembering Grandmother

I admired this pretty piece for several months, always entering the antique store and touring it in the same fashion. The last room, full of beautiful things, held this petite double frame. Of course, I viewed the price and it was too much. So, visit after visit, I just checked to see if it was still there. One day, as I turned the corner to the space, the cabinet with the double frame was not in the back corner. For a moment, I was sad, as I knew my beautiful piece had found a permanent home.
Fortunately, the cabinet had been moved to the front of the space and my piece was still waiting for me! I asked the antique store owner to check on a better price and this beauty became mine. I keep it on my bathroom vanity, so that I may gaze on it every morning. It is so lovely and the little children are precious!

I am remembering my Grandmother today.....she left us 2 years ago at the age of 87. She was a wife to Malcolm, mother to Jim and Pat, grandmother to Kana, Kreg, Kyle and Kristi, and great grandmother to Macy, Kyle, Chase, Chad and Kenson. She so loved life and mostly loved her family, especially those wonderful great grandchildren! This is one of my favorite photographs of her with my two children, in her backyard where she loved to tend to flowers (circa 1998).

Putting on the Glitz!

Yes, we have already survived the Prom! It was a lovely day and about 70 degrees. This is my favorite photo of the night, my daughter Macy with her brother Kyle. She is in her beautiful dress, while he is modeling his North Carolina blue to bring good luck to his favorite team.


This is the look you get when you are pushing your luck behind the camera!!


Here's a close up of the back of her dress....I like the bling!


Macy with her date, Reid. Notice the matching yellow.


Some of the girls admiring their corsages.


And last, but not least, the family. Kyle, my husband Mark, Macy and me.

Easter egg hunting...

...hosted by Viv.
I made the blue and purple eggs for my swap partners.

I sure hope they will like and enjoy!

I really like both of my eggs and they are so different. This yellow egg is just beautiful and all decorated with one of my favorites...bling!

This decoupaged egg is also very lovely and I really like the vintage chicks on the front of it! Thanks to both of my partners for making my eggs, they are hanging on my white Easter tree and look so pretty. Thanks again to Viv for hosting. Happy Sunday, Kana.

Window gazing...

...at Textile Fabrics in Nashville, TN. One could spend
hours in this store enjoying beautiful fabrics, buttons,
ribbons and more! Over the past few months, I have
been in the store often for needed supplies for various
projects. I have become friends with Joan, who hails from
New York. She has quite the eye for fabrics and is a very
accomplished seamstress, who has a wonderful vintage
fashion sense. I have learned much from her. Recently,
I was telling her that aprons are all the rage now and
there is even a magazine called Apronology from Stampington.
I went by the store last week and to my surprise, I see this
lovely window display of aprons!!

Joan now designs the wonderful window displays and this one is great.

Too bad my photography isn't as good. Notice among the aprons is
the A is for Apron book, filled with many ideas. Staff members made these aprons, and my favorite is the child size apron that
Joan made. She included pretty trim that becomes the tie.

A closer look....the cat fabric is fun!

The opposite window is celebrating springtime and Easter. Notice the

beautiful quilted Anna Maria Horner fabric on the right.

So many beautiful choices in fabrics today, they are truly a form of artwork.

Wishing you a happy day! Kana