Christmas Presents and Christmas Trees

I have had an incredibly productive Saturday. Its a great feeling:) My Grandson Mikey and I put up my Christmas Tree. Its not very big, but I didnt have any room in my new studio/living room, so its perfect for me. I love getting out my ornaments every year and remembering where I got each one. I have some from when I was a little girl. As I am typing this now I have three cats sleeping under the tree. I have been putting a few extra little touches on my studio. I got the wood trim on the glass display case painted pink and I was given this table from my friend Kathy. I had meant to get a before picture, and of course I forgot. My sister and I painted it pink too. I have been working on my ribbon area too. Last, but not least, I have gotten two early Christmas presents from my daughter April. I got this wire dress form that is soooo cute! We found this trunk at Tillies Attic. Its an American Girl trunk and even had some clothes in it. The drawers are great for more storage.

I hope all of your holiday plans are coming together. I feel a bit overwhelmed myself, but things are coming together slowly. It helps to have the tree up:)

Ornament Swap Party at Make Mine Pink

Hi, its time for our Ornament Swap Party at Make Mine Pink. The names have been exchanged and the ornaments have been made. :) I had two swap partners, Joyce from http://www.cottagecollections.com/ and Sandra. I havent met Sandra yet, but I look forward to meeting her. Its so fun meeting new people online. I wanted to post the photo of the adorable ornament the Joyce sent me. She made this and its just adorable AND pink!

I havent had time to put up my tree yet. I plan on making an afternoon of it on Saturday. I will have a special place front and center for my sweet ornament from Joyce. Visit the other blogs to see all of the sweet handmade ornaments from the swap party participants:) http://www.makeminepink.blogspot.com/

Have a great day, I hope you are getting ready and ahead of scheduele for the upcoming holidays.

Long Post/Long Overdue :)

I have been insanely, crazy busy trying to get my new studio area done. After a couple of unexpected delays and that annoying thing called my job (jk):) I am pretty much done. I never dreamed it would take this long, but I am very happy with the end results. This has been a true test to patience. I have not hardly seen my kids or Grandkids, and I have not seen many of my friends in 3 months time. I have several hundred emails backed up to go through. You get the idea,,, its been a mess.

Now I have some pictures to show you. The new area now called my studio used to be my living room/dining room/kitchen and entry way to my apartment. Its definately not the traditional set up for a home, but its perfect for me. I am happy with being non-traditional. The desk, sewing machine and large room is my work area. What used to be the dining room is now a sitting area with the TV and that flows into my small kitchen. The front entry is an odd little space, but I put my antique stove there and I made a little sitting area. I got the wall picture of the candles and flowers for my birthday, and low and behold in my stash of old linens I found the table cloth and the small pillow. Vintage 80's and looks good as new. It matches the wall stickers perfectly. Woo Hoo, saved more money. I will be honest, I spent less than $100.00 on this makeover. Its all repurposed from other areas of my house. I used my vintage suitcases to store my patterns in. I took what was in my living room and made a pretty bright yellow and citrus colored guest bedroom. So, I hope I am not boring you but here are a few photos. I do have one more space I am working on, and its going to be very fancy, but thats not quite ready so I will post it shortly. I want it to be perfect first. Have a great week! Happy Creating.

The Holiday Shop at Make Mine Pink

I cant believe how long its been since I was able to post. I have been going from the time I get up until I fall into bed at night. Working full time, family obligations and working on my studio re-do took every minute of my days. But its all done now and I love it and know I will be so much more productive. And boy am I ready to get back to the business of creating :)

Its the perfect time to get back into the swing of things. The holidays are here. Can you believe it? I just wanted to let you all know that starting this Friday (the 19th) through Sunday is the Holiday Shop, brought to you by Make Mine Pink. All of the participating boutiques will have lots of adorable Christmas items for sale. There will be alot of sales and some are offering gift wrapping too. Check out this link starting Friday Morning... www.makeminepink.com/holiday

Show and Tell *** Birthday Week :)

Hi. I love October. Its finally cooling down, under 100 anyway, and the mornings and nights are so nice. I love Halloween. To me its the official start to kick off the holiday season. I always seem to have so much fun stuff to do in October. So many of my friends and family have birthdays in October. Including me:) It has been alot of fun. My friends and family are awesome. Its been alot of celebrating for a week and a half now. My BFF Johnsie(can we say that when we are over 50?) took my to my favorite Asian restuarant and gave me this beautiful Brighton bracelet. I love it and it is perfect. My Sister and my other BFF Kathy (I have alot of BFF's, thats the good part about being over 50) took me to a ceramic painting studio and I painted this rose cupcake. The cake on the plate in the background was from a previous trip. We had cupcakes from the Cake Cafe. Kathy gave me an adorable kitty tote bag and this adorable Boyds collectable box that has a tiny bear holding a cupcake. Today my other BFF's Mark and Judy took me to eat at Joes Barbque. (If you are in the phoenix/gilbert area; you have to go there!!) But it was kind of a suprise party. Both of my daughters and my son-in-law, grandkids and my other BFF Pat came too. Great dinner, great company and a great hook up with Joanns gift cards:) So, its been an awesome birthday week.

My studio re-do is coming along. Very slowly, but surely. I will have pictures soon, but I did receive the most awesome gift in the mail from one of my blogging BFF's. Francie saw my post about how my theme for my new studio is a french bakery theme and sent me this adorable cake. You can also visit Francie at http://www.thescentedcottage.com/ . I hope you all have a great week and get to spend time with your BFF's.

Make Mine Pink Christmas Ornament Swap

This year we are having a Christmas ornament swap at Make Mine Pink. You are invited to join in the fun! I will leave the link to register at the bottom of this post. This is how it works....you make three hand made ornaments and you will be given three names to mail them to. In return three people will have your name and you will be sent three hand made ornaments. I participated last year and received the cutest ornaments and I cant wait to get them out again this year for my tree. There are so many creative and talented people out in blog land. This is going to be alot of fun. You can register and get all of the details here. http://www.makeminepink.com/ornament-swap/ . The blog for Make Mine Pink can be found by clicking on the badge for the ornament swap on my sidebar. (This is a photo of one of the ornaments I received last year:) )

A Sneak Peak

I have been quite busy with this whole re-do of my apt. I knew it would be a big job and I am making a little progress. I have a few photos to share of some of my treasures I have found. I cant show you photos of a room yet, for fear someone would send them to the tv show "Horders"! :) I have spent so little on this so far, thats the good news. The bad news is when you go for the good deals, it means lots of painting and sprucing up. That just takes a little more time, and that is something I am kind of short on, but its the adventure! I have found two large domed cake plates for $2.00 each! I got the Eiffel Tower book ends at Borders on clearance for $4.98. I had been eyeing that cute paper plate holder forever at Tillies Attic (the shop I am in) but it didnt match my kitchen before. So I was happy to finally get it:) Plus I can now use all of the things I have painted at the As You Wish Ceramic Studio. I am using the two vintage suit cases for storing my patterns. I love the cupcake picture, I got that at Home Goods. As you can see I am going for the Bakery theme. I have an entry way that I am bringing my antique stove back home and I am going to set up my little entry area and make it look like a French Bakery. Tons of cute ideas for that:) So, my entry, kitchen, sitting area and studio work area will be pink with a French Bakery theme. I got the shelf with glass doors and painted it pink, it will have a dowel to hang on the bottom to thread ribbon spools on. That will be the ribbon cabinet and just below is a night stand I painted pink and put round white knobs on. This will be for my trims and lace. I am looking for a three drawer dresser to paint the same and add the same knobs. I love polka dots and those cute little knobs are perfect. The fabric accents I am using will be pink with with dots too. Cant wait to show you more.

I have been do some creating. I have been in an earring sort of mood. I made quite a few today. I hope you are having a great weekend and enjoying the fall weather. I hear its great. I wouldnt know, in AZ its still over 100!

More Great Gift Ideas

Today was our monthly open house at Tillies Attic. As some of you may know this is a local store in Mesa Arizona. These get togethers are always so much fun. We get to meet all of the vendors and visit. There is always lots of good food, drinks and chocolate! I like to post every now and then new photos of whats going on in the store. There are always new vendors and the store is looking so pretty and getting ready for the holiday season that is fast approaching. Here is a sample of whats new. Geri is a very talented fuse glass artist and has alot of new items available. If you are a Longaberger collector there is a brand new room with a great selection of very pretty baskets and their full line of products. Of course you will find lots of great vintage items as well. If your looking for some great and unique gifts at very good prices, keep us in mind at Tillies Attic. They are opened Tuesday through Saturday, 9:30 to 5:00 pm. Located on the SE corner of Guadalupe and Dobson. (1941 W Guadalupe #111 Mesa, AZ 85202)

Cupcakes and Polkadots

This Friday our Make Mine Pink Friday theme is "Cupcakes and Polkadots". This for sure will be one of my favorites! I cant resist polkadots. Who doesnt like a cupcake, even if its not edible? By visiting each of the participating shops I am sure you will find all sort of adorable and whimsical new things for your home or a special gift for someone. I cant wait to see the cupcake pillows, art, ceramics and jewelry. The fun starts tomorrow, and remember its one day only. You can find us at www.makeminepink.com/pink-friday.

The Art of the Handbag

Girls Night Out
Crystal Ballroom

Ladies Choice

I will admit to owning ALOT of purses. Its so bad that my friends refuse to help me move them all anymore. I am not really a designer handbag kind of girl. The more girly girl they are the better too. I love finding great deals on bags too. I love all colors and styles for that matter. However there are to designer bags I adore. That would be anything Brighton. I do own two of them, cute as can be. BUT.... Mary Frances has taken making bags to an art form and they are gorgeous. I was very lucky to get one as a gift two Christmas' ago. (Its the last photograph). I know they arent everyone cup of tea, but for me, they are like little three dimensional Monets or Picassos :) The photographs here are from her website. http://www.maryfrances.com/

There is no update on the studio this week... I cant believe this, but I have changed my mind on the whole color scheme. I just cant help it. I have to go with the pinks and creams. Out with the reds. I had no inspiration and was just "stuck". As fate would have it I came down with the flu. Like the stay in bed for three days and want to die kind of flu. Somewhere in the dreams of all that sleep or fever induced inspiration I came up with the perfect ideas. I have to say that is REALLY looking at the silver lining of being so sick. But I will start again this week toward my goal. It may be a bad time of year to start all of this. Afterall the holidays are coming and I should be creating lots of new things for my shop. But I just feel like I need to get my studio, my apt and my life just the way I want it,,, then start fresh and new on my business and all of my new ideas. I cant wait to share some photos soon. Have a great week.