Looking forward to 2010

I hope everone had a wonderful holiday and a Merry Christmas. I had a great day with family, friends and in the evening I went to see the new movie Sherlock. I really liked it alot. The movie theaters were packed! I guess thats the new thing to do on Christmas night these days. I am really looking forward to starting the new year. This is a year that has had many good things, but a very hard one for me. There is nothing like a fresh start and a new attitude. I normally dont make New Years Resolutions, but this year I am. I hope your New Year is an exceptional one. I wish each of you a Happy, Healthy, and Successful New Year! May all your dreams come true :)

This is a few gifts that I made for my sister this year for Christmas. :) The cat on the purse is her cat Lily. It was a photo transfered on fabric. Lily likes having her picture taken. My sisters living room has a little red love seat and she uses the leopard print as accents, so I though why not a leopard cupcake pillos. lOL

Quilt and Stitch Ornament Exchange

I participated in a really fun ornament exchange that the Quilt and Stitch Marketplace had. I made cupcake and ice cream cone ornaments for my contribution. The three I received are so sweet. I hope they will do this again. The first one is a sled from my friend Nancy at http://www.couerdalenegifts.com/ . She also had a bag of wonderful potporri sitting in the sleigh. The second is an ornament made from folded papers. Its very intricate and detailed. I just love it. Its really nice on my tree and it was made by Rebecca Dean from Utah. The third one is a sweet knitted hat and mittens made by Liz Sampson from Norwood New York.

This is my Grandaughter Mya at her ballet perfomance last week. She did awesome, of course. LOL She is really growing up fast.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy, Healthy and Successful New Year! Gail

Earrings and Fabric ~ Oh My :)

I have been as busy as Santas Elves the last couple weeks. But while I was working on some gifts and orders I made 3 pairs of earrings. I havent decided if they are for me or my website. LOL The first set of 3 is for one of my best customers and she is only 6 years old. Her name is Lily and she is the grand daughter of my friend Marie. By the way,,, if you love yummy, soft, beautifuly fragrant soap please visit her website. http://www.savonmarie.com/.

I was out trim shopping and I was at this store called SAS. If you are from the Tempe area of Phoenix you probably have heard of this place. Its been here forever and you can get lost for hours. The prices are unbelievable too. Alot of trims are .25 and .49 cents a yard. I stumbled upon the designer samples that they were selling for 4.99 for each set of samples. My sweet friend that I was with, Pat bought these for me. They are plenty big enough for the projects I do and I am really looking forward to creating with these!

I hope you are all about ready for the big day. I dont think I am, but its all good. This week I have a ballet recital and school program for my grand daughter Mya and a cookie baking day on friday,,,so fair warning,,,Grandma alert!! My next post will probably be Grandma brag pictures. LOL Have a great week.... gail

Quilt and Stitch ornament swap

I got to participate in a Christmas ornament swap with the ladies at the Quilt and Stitch Marketplace. I have already received my first one in the mail. Dont you love getting suprise gifts in the mail. Especially if it comes on a day with no bills. :) I received this sweet hat and mittens made by Liz Sampson. I love them,,, they are so adorable. I hope she likes what I sent her. I will post the others as they come.

I went with my daughter April and Mikey to her holiday party at the dental complex where she works. It was a very nice party. Great food, entertainment, Santa Clause and the best part, a chocolate fountain! I have been doing my best to get ready for Christmas. I have a few gifts to get done and then let the wrapping begin! I hope you all enjoy your week. (()) gail

I Love Cupcakes and Make Mine Pink Fridays

Tomorrow, friday the 4th of December, is pink friday and Make Mine Pink. The theme for this week "its all about Christmas". Be sure to visit all of the participating shops for great gifts and holiday decorations. www.makeminepink.com/pink-friday . Also, dont forget about the 12 Days of Christmas Shop Hop still going on until December 8th. You can see all of the details here, but you dont want to miss out on the chance to win our Ultimate Gift Basket. www.makeminepink.com/shop-hop .

I am having a promotion on my website during the shop hop. If you purchase any pillow on my "cupcake pillow" catagory you get a cupcake ornament for free. I hope you all have a great day.

Its beginning to look alot like Christmas

I always put my tree up on Thanksgiving night. I dont have a very large tree, or a very fancy one either. My tree has lots of ornaments that I have collected over my life. Kind of like my charm bracelet. I always like to buy hand made ornaments whenever I can. I also love making ornaments! I used to buy a new ornament for each of my daughters when they were growing up, then when they left home I gave them their collection. Word to the wise out there, if you do this make sure you by yourself one too. I failed to do this and had a bare tree for awhile. LOL But I love that tradition and I know alot of people do this.

Many of you know my office manager Lucy,,, she even helped decorate the tree. My cats are so funny, they love laying under the tree. They are all piled up sleeping their afternoons away.

This top photo was some ornaments I made for my friend Joyce and she took these on her tree! They are just awesome. The pink angel was mine when I was a little girl from the 60's. Its still my absolute favorite. I bought the teddy bear santa and the moose in a stocking at a Harvest Festival back in the 80's.

I have been making lots of cupcake and ice cream cone ornaments and they are in all colors. I have some on my website and can also take special requests for colors. I hope you have a great week and are having fun decoration and getting ready for the holidays!

Short and Sweet

Its Thanksgiving week already! I think this year was on warp drive. I hope everyone has special plans this year with their family. Take time to think about all of the wonderful things in your life to give Thanks for :) This year for the holidays I am focusing on having fun and enjoying time spent with friends and family. I am usually far to busy being stressed out about everything being perfect. I think one blessing from being unemployed this holiday is the fact that alot of those issues that cause so much stress has been taken out of my hands. I just have to go with the flow and see what each day brings and there is a very liberating feel to that. I dont have the budget for perfect and when that fact is taken out of the situation, what is left is concentrating on what is affordable. That is being able to go to school programs to see your grand kids perform, ballet recitals, visiting friends, playing games and baking cookies. Not only is that affordable,,,,, its priceless. (So take that Master Card. lol)

I have some new cupcake ornaments that I have been working on. Here are a few. They will be going on my website very soon. I have been having fun making gifts for people, but I fear I cant post photos or I will give it away. So I dont have a lot to show this week. But this elf needs to get back to the workshop. Have a beautiful, happy, healthy and blessed Thanksgiving...

THE Ultimate Gift Basket

The holidays are fast approaching. Really fast! I am doing my best to be ahead of scheduele this year. I am doing pretty good too. But shhh, dont tell anyone, I would hate to jinx myself. I think one of the easiest ways to stay ahead and be organized is shopping online. As most of you know I belong to Make Mine PInk and we have so many shopping events going on. We have all made the commitment to make customer service top priority this season. Put some Joy into this season after such a hard year. Many of the boutiques are offering free gift wrapping, and free offers and gifts. This friday our weekly themed shopping event is "all about family" for Make Mine Pink Friday. Find great gifts for all members of your family or holiday decorations to start new family traditions. Then November 27th through December 8th is our annuel 12 days of Christmas Shop Hop. Its even more special this year for a couple of very BIG and exciting reasons. We have invited Shabbylane Shops, Victorian Heart Shoppes and Shabby Cottage Shops to be part of this event. Its going to be huge! You can check this link for complete details, www.makeminepink.com/shop-hop , but during these dates you want to visit each participating websites and find their hidden shopping bag. Click on that bag to register your find. There are some fabulous prizes, but the Grand prize is whats being called the Ultimate Gift Basket! Find all of the hidden bags and be put in a drawing for this grand prize. Its retail value is over $1,000.00. Everything inside has been contributed by participating Make Mine Pink shops. The basket is very large and lined in a lush rich velvet. You really dont want to miss this one! But while looking for those shopping bags... take a little time to see what special offers and sales are going on. You may just get some of your holiday shopping done too! I plan on adding lots of these cute cupcake ornaments for your tree and gift giving. I will also be offering free gift wrapping upon request!

AND if this isnt enough.... November 21st,,, this saturday night is the Pink Twilight Sale. Its 6hours of unbelievable bargains. This is our version of an online tag sale. Last month was soooo fun. Its 6pm to 12 midnight EST. www.makeminepink.com/twilight

I met an amazing artist

I did a show at the Irish Cultural Center this weekend and had a great time. It is located in downtown Phoenix in the cutest cottage. They hold alot of events and weddings here as well as Irish celebrations. I met some of the nicest people and plan to join some of their groups. During this show their was a quilt artist named Beverly Fizzell. She had her work displayed during our show. She is pure genious. Her work is done all by hand. I enjoyed speaking with her so much. She is a painter and artist of many mediums. She does not sell her quilts and it took her friends to convince her to display them! I hope she will keep displaying them because they are truly a work of art the world would love to see. She was such a nice person and so humble. I hope you enjoy the photos. They were very high on the wall, so my photos arent quite a good as I would have liked.

The carousel with the horses flying off took her two years. She told me the dancing girl was her 2 second quilt she made. (wow, can you imagine!) The man hole cover is pure genious. I have never seen anything like it. She said it was hanging on the ceiling of her home. The dog has a collar and the shoe laces actually dangle down. The cats are gorgeous. To give the appearance of muscle structure and a dimensional look she wet the fabric and stretch and pulled to manipulate the fabric. I hope you have enjoyed meeting Beverly,,, I know I sure did. I hope to see her again at the Center.

Cupcakes and Fairytales

Join us for Make Mine Pink Fridays one day only themed shopping day. I have been waiting all year for this weeks theme. Cupcakes and fairytales. There will be so beautiful and magical gift selections. Faux cupcakes to decorate your kitchen, fairy jewelry, cupcake pillows to decorate with and you may even be lucky enough to find some enchanted fairy houses!

The beautiful ceramic fairy house pictured here is from http://www.carolinealexander.net/ and if you would love to see what the other participating shops are offering, stop by friday at www.makeminepink.com/pink-friday.

I am getting in the holiday spirit

Most people look forward to putting up the decorations and the tree. I look forward to giving my blog a holiday makeover. lol So, I have a new look to show you. I have also been working on lots of new projects for the holidays and will be adding to my website soon. I will be having a special promotion during the Make Mine Pink Christmas Shop Hop. It will be a different ornament offered each day. They will all have a bakery or sweet treat theme and if you purchase the whole set they will be packed in a nifty bakery box tied up with a pretty bow for the the holidays. Here is the first ornament, and ice cream cone. I am loving heart these days too. So, here is a little of what I am working on. Have a great week and happy creating,,,gail

Cat Dracula

Once upon a Halloween there was a quaint Gothic cottage just beyond the cemetery. The owner was the famous Cat Dracula. For obvious reasons he preferred to sleep in the day. But one day, right in the middle of the afternoon there was a knock on his front door. He slowly opened the lid to his comfy coffin to peak out. He figured he better start right where he was, but you know what they say....curiosity kills the Cat Dracula. So he snuck up the stairs from the cold dark basement to see who dared knock on his door. When he cracked it open there was no one there! He saw an envelope tacked to the door. An invitation to a big Halloween celebration. Simply everyone would be there!

On All Hallows Eve Count Dracula set out for the party. He arrived at the Witches Inn and found many of his friends already there. Carmen and Oscar are his very best friends.

There was alot of food, witches brew and casting spells going on. A ghost passing by the crystal ball took a glance to see a vision. He let out a ghostly howl and shreik that stopped all dead in their tracks. What on earth could be so scary? The crystal ball told the scary truth.... ONLY 55 MORE DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!

Pink Slipper Project Sew-a-thon Saturday

Yesterday was the day that was set aside to gather your friends and family to have fun, laugh, eat chocolate and make slippers for The Pink Slipper Project. I know there were several groups around the country participating and I cant wait to see what everyone did. Its so fun. Be sure to visit http://www.pinkslipperproject.org/ to see all of the great slipper that have been donated so far to womens shelters to help keep very special ladies and children warm this winter.

Here are some of the finished products. We had alot of help. I managed to catch Kahlua (she is the black carin terrier) and Maui (she is the blonde carin terrier) helping out. Believe me they never left our side, they know a good party when they see one. We had our party at my BFF Judys house. Our friend Jessica stopped by and we gave her a pair of scissors to rag the edges. Her husband Mark went to this awesome Bar b Que place and brought lunch home. Barbque beef sandwhiches, homemade macaroni and cheese, corn, cheesy potatoes. It was soooo good. Then we had cupcakes for dessert. I have a really cute Cake Cafe down the street and they specialize in cupcakes. They are ALL great, but I love the orange cake w/ orange icing. Man I wish they were open on Sundays because I would be headed there right now for another one! So it was a really fun day. I see more slippers in my future. :) If you would like to become involved with this project, click on to the website and see what it is all about. Have a great week.

We Have A Winner :)

Thank you everyone for entering my give away. They are always alot of fun. I put all of the names in a bowl and, Lucy, my office manager made sure everyone was in there. The lucky winner is Shannon from http://www.shabbyshanscottage.com/ !!!(be sure to check out her adorable website!) Congratulations. I left a post on your blog with my email so that you can send me your address! I will have another give away before Christmas. Have a great weekend..(()) gail

Pumpkins and Spice

This weeks theme for Make Mine Pink Friday is Pumpkins and Spice. I love the fall. The colors, the smells, the weather, just everything. Be sure to visit all of the participating shops tomorrow at www.makeminepink.com/pink-friday to see what they have to offer for this one day only shopping event. There will be rich potpourri of cinnamon and spice. Holiday decorations for Halloween or Thanksgiving. Jewelry to wear to your favorite holiday events. Maybe even gorgeous vintage linens handed down through the generations for holiday traditions. I cant wait to see what everyone comes up with to help me celebrate my favorite time of the year.

(the photo is a beautiful velvet pumpkin designed and made by my friend Carol at http://www.espritdejoie.com/ )

Its time for a give-away contest!

I am on my way out the door to yet another fun birthday celebration! October is party month. Just about all of my friends and family are Libras celebrating the fall. (even the dog has a birthday this month) So with all of the birthdays going on I decided it was time for a give away and time to celebrate. Its easy too, just leave a comment on this post by this Friday, Oct 23 by midnight and I will draw a winner first thing Saturday morning! What better way to celebrate birthdays than with cupcakes. I am giving away one of my pink fairy cakes. This is a smaller version of my larger cupcakes pillows. Good Luck... and if you are an October baby, happy birthday to you!

Look what I got for my birthday :)

Well, I hit the big 51 on Oct 7th. I guess it doesnt matter too much, I feel the same. I wanted to share what my sister Stephanie painted for me. I love this painting, its my new happy place in my mind. lol Also for Christmas she did this colored pencil drawing of Lily. Stephanie took Lily for me when all of my other cats kept being so mean to her. I have no idea why they treated her so badly, but Steph came to the rescue and Lily could not be happier! If you notice in the right side bottom corner of the painting, you will see Lily peeking around the corner. Steph also crochets a mean blanket. I am trying to get her to open an Etsy shop too.

I have really been giving alot of thought to the different talent people have. I believe we all have talents and I hope you are finding time to learn about your own and develope it to its full potential. Whether you like to cook, write, draw, garden, dance, act, you get the idea.... go for it! I have started a new blog that is mostly a journal of sorts about living with limited mobility issues and finding inspiration for your own greatness. If you get a chance, check it out too. Because I do believe that my creativity is the icing on the cake of my life :) http://www.inspirationforgreatness.blogspot.com/

Girly Finds

Its almost friday, and you know what that means! Its time for the Make Mine Pink Friday weekly shopping event. This weeks theme is Girly Finds. This is perfect shopping for the all of the girly girls out there...you know who you are! Be sure to visit all of the participating shops. There will be purses, feminine pillows, jewelry. I am sure there will be alot of gorgeous vintage finds. Journals for keeping track of all of your hopes and dreams. There will be lots to find for your special little girls or your inner child. So please join us, tomorrow October 9th. You can find the participating shops herehttp://www.makeminepink.com/pink-friday

Lots of Fun Stuff

What a week I have had and coming up! Its that busy time of the year. I love it so much. I was in my first arts and craft show in many years this weekend. Its called the Briar Patch and its been a local favorite in the Phoenix area for over 25 years now. I met the sweet lady, Jeannie, who has run this show since the very beginning and she runs a great show and is a pleasure to work with. If you are in the Phoenix metro area there will be another Briar Patch show Oct 10th and 11th. It is at Sequoya Elementary School at 11808 N 64th St in Scottsdale. This is THE BIG ONE! Well over 100 vendors, I heard some say up to 200. People come from out of state to participate in this show. Great fudge and peanut brittle too! Here is their website for more info: www.briarpatchcrafts.com Maybe I will see ya there. Here is a couple photos of this weekends show. April helped me set it up and she decided on a snack. lol This is a lady I met and she makes the most adorable items and starts with vintage chenille bedspreads. She has a way of putting patterns and colors together. Just gorgeous. This is one side of my space. Next week I will have a more elaborate display to show. :) Last is a photo of one of my new pillows. Its wrapped like a pretty gift and you never have to open it. I thought the cute altered art tags would really be cute. I got these from Carrie at http://www.noellegarrettdesigns.com/.

I also will be doing a show the beginning of November with The Irish Cultural and Learning Foundation. It will be with the popular First Fridays are walk in downtown Phoenix. And of course starting Monday, 10-5 is the shop hop at Make Mine Pink. Be sure to visit all of the participating shops to find the hidden shopping bags to be entered in drawings for great prizes. So many of the shops are running great specials and having special events and contributions for Breast Cancer Awareness. www.makeminepink.com/shop-hop . Its going to be an exciting week, be sure to get in on some of the fun... Until next time... gail

Make Mine Pink Friday~ its Pink and Chic

As many of you know every friday at Make Mine Pink we have a themed shopping day. This is my theme this week Oct 2nd. Its all about pink, everything pink. You can follow this link starting friday and visit all of the different shops to see what they will be offering. This is a favorite of ours so it will be awsome to see what everyone has for this one day event. www.makeminepink.com/pink-friday .

As You Wish

I hope everyone is enjoying the fall. I must live through you if I may. It was supposed to be 108 today. I am staying inside, so that means alot of creating is getting done :) Last week a very good friend of mine took me to a shop called As You Wish. Its a pottery painting place and soooo much fun. You pick out a piece of greenware and you choose all of your own glazes and fun stuff to create a masterpiece of your own. I used to do porcelin dolls many years ago, but have not done much with ceramics. It was quite fun and relaxing. They had so many Halloween items. Soooo cute! But I went with a plain scalloped edged plate to try my hand at painting a cupcake and doodles. I can see a zillion mistakes, but I love it all the same. It was a very special night,,,, thank you Kathy.

I am doing an art show next weekend called the Briar Patch. It is held at several locations this time of year until Christmas. I hope to be doing quite of few of these shows. I am really excited and have been working like crazy. I am happy with the amount of inventory I have so far, but I will be doing more this week. Because I also have the Shop Hop for Pink October for Make Mine Pink. That begins Oct. 5th, so be sure to get signed up for all of the fun at http://www.makeminepink.com/ . Also this friday the theme for Make Mine Pink Friday is Simply Pink. This is a match made in heaven for me. As you know alot of what I do is Pink :) So here is a photo of my cupcake plate and some jewelry I worked on this weekend. I listed 19 new things on my website last night. ( a little shameless self promotion here. ) And I created a design to send into a magazine for consideration for a submission. More on that later. So stay busy, enjoy a nice fall day for me~please :) Until next time...... gail

The Grand Canyon.....finally

I was born and raised in Arizona. In fact there are not alot of 50 year olds around who are natives. But I had NEVER been to the Grand Canyon. I dont even know why, but at last I finally went this last week for the day. I was suprised that it only took 3hours and 45 minutes to get there and that was with a couple little stops and going the speed limit! I went with my very good friend Johnsie, her sister Jennifer and her Dad and Aunt Toots. Aunt Toots was visiting from Philly. The weather was just beautiful, 75 degrees. They went hiking about 1/4 mile down the Bright Angel Trail. There was no way I would be able to do that with my hip, but I was content sitting in the gorgeous weather and clean air. While I was sitting there a tour of mules was coming back up from the bottom of the canyon. You can ride a mule down, I guess it takes about 5 to 6 hours. You camp overnight in cabins and have a great steak dinner then back up the next morning. I was talking with some of the folks arriving. They had the time of their life. They all seemed glad they did it, but probably wouldnt do it again. I guess its pretty intense. I also understand reservations have to be made very far in advance. None of my photos of the mules turned out. I found a squirrel (susan lol) but that photo didnt turn out either, darn. But here are a few. I was so happy they asked me along. :)

I also have had a really busy week creating for the upcoming fall season and an upcoming art show I will be doing locally called The Briar Patch. I will blog about that show when I do it. I think it will be a great experience. I met the woman who runs this show today. Her name is Jeanne and she is such a nice person and really works hard for her shows. So, its been a nice week. I made these 3 pin cushions from some baby shoes I got at an antique store. These boxes are what I am working on for the Make Mine Pink shop hop. Its part of my promotion. When a purchase is made from my "rose jewelry" catagory you will receive one of these pink gift boxes. And 20 percent of my sales will go to the Susan G Koman Foundation for breast cancer research. And last but not least I am working on some new pillows. These are presents you wont have to open! I here sooo many times the ladies here at MMP say when they received the package, "it was so pretty, I didnt want to open it" Everyone love a beautifully wrapped gift. This is just a sneak preview. I will be adding other colors and styles and they will be coming with a beautiful altered art tag that Carrie from Noelle Garrett Designs is making for me. Whew!!! This is a long one.... What have you been up to? Are you getting a head start on the holidays? Until next time...... gail

Show and Tell with Furry Friends Helping.

Its been a busy week and I am happy that I have gotten lots done. Thats always a good thing around this time of year. Its been a week now since I have been unemployed and I think I am better each day. At least I am moving on the the next phase, anger! lol Now I am just mad, not so much sad. But thats OK too, I am using that energy in a positive way. I have alot of projects in various stages and I will post them when they are finished, but I have a couple pillows to post today. The gold colored plaid is a vintage piece of fabric I picked up at a yard sale in Providence RI in June. I love the retro colors. The fabric is in excellent condition. The heart was just something new to try. And this is Googars. He is my main helper. He sticks to me like glue. Its funny because when I lived in my townhouse before he insisted on being a mostly outdoor cat. He was the neighborhood bully too. I would here cat fights and I always new it was him. There was flat roofs on the buildings and he was always running across everyones roof making noise. It was quite embarassing at times, so when I moved I would not let him out and I dont know if he is happy about it or if he figures if he annoys me enough I will throw him outside. I hope everyone is enjoying the fall. Not quite here yet, but I am anticipating its arrival! Have a happy, healthy and creative day... Until next time...... gail

What I know for sure.

Happy Labor Day. I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday weekend, blessed with beautiful weather and lots of good food at cook outs! I have never thought too much about Labor Day before until this year. I have worked since I was 15 years old and until now I have never lost a job. If I left, it was on my own terms. My job had been up in the air and back and forth for months so I really not shocked I got laid off, but what I am upset about is the CEO of the company that will be taking over came out to Phoenix a week ago and said there would not be any changes. There is only three people in our small business. I was feeling so much better, however my gut telling me "I dont know about this." So this is the first thing I know for sure, always listen to your gut instinct! Thursday the new owners called and said they arent keeping me. They hope its just temporary and they can bring me back soon. Guess what my gut tells me about that. LOL I wont be holding my breath. Its been a really tough and emotional weekend. I am trying to be a big girl about this, but I honestly just feel like being sad, mad and feel sorry for myself. Especially since I was screwed (can I say that word?) out of my vacation pay they owe me. I left with two days pay! But I am feeling a little better now. I live alone, but my family is freaking out about what is Mom going to do now. I am going to be working on my businesses Gail Friend Designs and Gails Furry Friends. I have to make it work. I dont want anyone else having control over my future every again. Soooo to my family, dont worry, I have no intention on moving in with you! lol AND this is what else I know for sure... I am too damn old to keep start over again! So this is the last time I will. I have been working to get to this place my whole life, its my time and I will succeed.

In the middle of my pity party I did make this bracelet and earrings today. :) Have a great week. Be thankful for your jobs as you celebrate Labor Day this year.

National Sewing Month :)

September is National Sewing Month. I have really been excited to see how much sewing has gained in popularity. Quilting just gets bigger and bigger. Its becoming such a major art form with so many techniques and styles. Shows like Project Runway has alot of young adults and teens very interested in sewing and design. I love the new website created by Joyce Lucas, http://www.quiltandstitchmarketplace.com/ . This site has the most adorable quilt shops, fabric shop and work from fiber artist.

Grab a cup of tea and have a look and be inspired by these textile artist and merchants. Until next time... gail