Show and Tell Monday ~ I have cool friends :)

Hi,,, I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. I wish you all a very happy, safe and healthy New Year! I had a wonderful Christmas. I also have to say I am so glad its over. I have been over the top too busy and I truly feel like December blew up in my face. I am off work from my day job until January 5th. This weekend I have been doing lots of spring cleaning. I am nearly done, so the rest of the week I get to play, plan and organize my studio and my thoughts on what I want from the new year. I am really looking forward to all of the great things I have ahead of me.

I hope Santa was good to everyone. I have some very special friends and family and I was very blessed. I have a really special friend who knew I wanted an art easel, and she had one mailed to me. I love this beautiful easel and I cant wait to use it. I got alot of gift cards from JoAnn's so now that my work and chores are done (lol) I am going to go buy all of the art supplies I can carry! Another very special friend sent me these gorgeous display items. They are beautiful and they actually match a couple pieces I already have. They will just be perfect for using for photographs or doing shows! Next, what would Christmas be without children. These are my 3 grandkids, Mikey, Mya and Jace. They had a blast on Christmas and I am so thankful that we were able to make there day so special. Have a great week. ....... gail

show and tell Monday

Hi, I hope everyone is ready for the holidays. They are fast approaching. I still have quite abit today, but it will get done when its done. I am not going to get stressed about it. I have already been lucky enough to have received a couple of awesome gifts. If Christmas was over now I would be so happy and incredibly blessed by my friends. I was wrapping presents today and I was not looking so forward to that. My cats love to wrap presents. They wait for it all year long :) As you can see they are quite pooped out!

Saturday I had some shopping to do. I went with my sister and my friend. The stores were pretty crazy. Lots of crabby people for sure! I just wanted to get out of there, so I have some more to do tomorrow afternoon. We went to a favorite place of my families. Its a citrus grove called the Orange Patch. Its a cute little general store. The navel oranges are so sweet and juicy, they are just like candy!

I wish you and your familys joy in your world and peace in your home this holiday season and always! I hope anyone traveling safe arrivals. Have a holiday season of sparkle and charm.... much luv, gail

Show and Tell Monday

This is my transformation project this week. I bought these white jewelry displays from a Mervyns going out of business sale. They were only $2.00 each, but a little beat up and dirty. So I decided I could fix these up. I love doing this and I think it may be a new addition to my website. I have also been fou fouing up any dress forms I can find also. They were for my own display purposes but I have had a great response to this idea, so I am going to run with it and see what I come up with. Have great week. Until next time.......................gail

Pink Friday :)

Christmas comes but once a year. Anticipation is part of the season. But to see the most gloriously wrapped gifts under the tree makes the anticipation nearly unbearable. Wrapping the gift is where you get to have some real fun. Even plain paper can be so pretty when decorated with vintage ribbon bows and millinery flowers. A broken costume pin can add some sparkle. If you have pretty holiday fabrics, you can have your own unique source for wrapping gifts. A Vintage table runner can be a great wrap for a bottle of wine or sparkling apple cider. A hand-crafted gift tag personalized for the recipient shows your thoughtfulness. Add a personal touch here or there, it is an opportunity to express both yourself and how much the recipient means to you. Join the Boutiques at Make Mine Pink this Friday, December 12, as we present some of our favorite gift wrapping ideas and hints because we believe opening a beautifully wrapped gift brings as much pleasure as the gift itself. www.makeminepink.com/pink-friday

I-CAN, Turner Broach and Christmas Trees

I work for a small family owned company called Turner Broach and Cutting Tools. Its a machine shop and I still dont quite get what they do out in the shop, but the end result is these parts end up in jet engines. My boss, Kay is involved in a local community charity called I-CAN. It has been in existence for 17 years and their goal is helping the at risk youth and children. They do some very amazing things with some even more amazing results. Friday night was the 5th annual Festival of Trees. this is a silent auction and Christmas tree auction to benefit this charity. Its a semi formal dinner banquet as well.

This year Kay donated a 7 1/2 foot tree. We needed to come up with a theme and after alot of thinking, and just plain running out of time, I came up with Snowman Christmas. It was a tree decorated with red and white, snowmen of all kinds, icicles and snowflakes. And ALOT of bows. So Thursday Kay, her Brother John, and myself headed for the ballroom of the San Marcos Hotel in Chandler to set out tree up. Meeting all of the other participants was very exciting, and the other trees were just beautiful. I was covered in glitter from head to toe. LOL

Friday night came, dinner was wonderful. Beautiful wreaths and arrangements were offered for the silent auction, then the Tree auction began. The first two trees were from the police department and the fire department. Both the Chief of Police and the Chief of Fire were there to get it started. They were really funny and they mangaed to get $6,500.00 each for their trees. The started on one side of the room and the trees were going for $300.00 to $600.00. Our tree was the last. The tree next to ours was titles Sex in the City and it was very cute and came with a large pink high heel chair. I really thought it would get the most bids. My boss was bidding on it, and I didnt realize at the time, she was trying to get it for me. I thought that was so incredibly sweet, but their was another woman who wasnt leaving without that tree. LOL she won with a bid of $1,500.00. Then our tree was up. The paddles started flying! I was so excited. The auctioneer even joked "Now we have an auction!" When it was all said in done the winning bid was $1,800.00. I was so excited to have created something to help out these kids. After all of the trees and silent auctions were tallied they earned an amazing $80,000.00 . It was an amazing evening. There were elected official in attendance as well. After the auction was a local band called The Chris Parker Project. If your local and ever get a chance to see them preform,, do so, there were great! So, I have added some pictures of Turner Broach, some of the other trees entered and our Snowman Christmas that I was very proud to be part of.... until next time...... (())gail

I have to share a contest with you :)

I love, love, love faux desserts. They are just adorable and NO calories. They are really cute on dessert plates in the kitchen, or they also make really cute ornaments. One of the best faux dessert artist is Jenni of http://www.jenniboriginals.com/ . Her work is flawless. She has so much talent. She is having a blog contest to give away some of the treats she made while appearing on the Martha Stewart Show. All you have to do is leave a post on her blog before Dec. 7th. Just visit http://www.jenniboriginals.blogspot.com/ to enter. You dont want to miss out on the fun.