Fairy Cakes And My New Idea

At Make Mine Pink our annual Christmas in July Shop Hop is fast approaching and it has had me thinking about new ideas for the holidays this year. I have had friends and family putting their order in for things they would like me to make for them this year. I have always been a fan of handmade gifts but this year seems like even a better idea than most. Alot of people are under so much stress this year and I myself am being laid off very soon. So I am starting early and giving alot of thought to what special gifts I can make for friends and family this year, start early and do myself a huge favor and avoid the holiday stress before it can even start.

The idea I came up with for my Shop Hop promotion is making these gift boxes that will be free with the purchase of any of my rose jewelry. I have a few short weeks to get some of these made. Keep watching for Shop Hop details. They will be in several colors to choose from. I also made two Fairy Cakes for my Sweet Dream Bakery. these are a smaller version of the cupcake pillows. I am really getting into fairys these days. Maybe its just that its a nice thought that there is a little magic left in the world today:) Until next time....

Pink Roses for Pink Friday

Yay! Its friday again! Friday is such a great day for so many reasons. Who doesnt love the weekends? Going out to dinner on friday nights with friends? Staying up later than usual? But my favorite reason for loving fridays is Pink Friday at Make Mine Pink. If you follow this link you can see all of the participating shops. www.makeminepink.com/pink-friday Each week there is a different themed shopping day. Its one day only. This weeks theme is "A rose by any other name." Roses is all of our favorite theme. So browse the shops for rose potporri, gorgeous needlepoint tuffets, jewelry, ceramics, vintage china or tea cups. Hand dyed silk rose pins, broken china charms, cute faux pastries or beautifully scented hand made soaps. So much more, so dont miss Pink Friday, one day only, tomorrow :) Happy Shopping, Gail (This pretty pink polymer clay rose was made by my friend and artist Marie Seagal. I love using her roses in my jewelry designs. This is my newest necklace called Bubblegum :) , the hand built ceramic roses are from another amazingly talented friend Cindy from Angelheart Designs.)

Enchanted Makeovers and Fairys

I have just finished a project I have been working on most of this past week. I have been making some fairy necklaces to go to a very special group of young women. Make Mine Pink and my own business Gail Friend Designs have adopted Enchanted Makeovers. This organization is operated by Terry Grahl and she makes over womens shelters. Her current project is called Vista Maria and this is shaping up to be a beautiful new place for these young women to call home. Next week they will be having a very special dinner party for these girls. There will be a chef come in to cook for them and teach them about cooking, there will be flowers and a professional photographer as well. I also believe there will be a singer to entertain. The tables will be set with vintage china and chairs adorned with beautiful fabric swags. Women all over the country have been generously making aprons for each of the girls as well. My contribution is a small gift bag with a fairy necklace that I have designed for especially for the girls and this event. I wrapped each necklace in its own bag with butterfly confetti and a pink bow. Its being shipped out in this gorgeous rose box I got at the Post Office. I wrote on the box "Enchanted Faireys Inside" hoping it would be treated with extra gentle care. :) I hope they have a magical evening that will give them happy memories for a very long time.

Dancing Paper Dolls and Lazy Cats

I am so happy to be participting in the Traveling Paper Art Doll Symposium. This was a project started by Kitty Kelly. This is a traveling journal project. A paper doll she created and a blank journal. Once the next participant receives it you may add on item to the doll and write in the journal. You are able to write anything in your journal entry, even a made up fairytale. Which is what I did :) Then you mail the doll out to the next name on the list. I believe there is four dolls going around, all over the globe. It is incredible fun and like being a child again. Playing with paperdolls and writing fun stories! The project has caught the eye of a larger project called 1000 journals and she is hoping for our journals to be included in a documentary. It is open to anyone who would like to participate. You can check out the project at http://www.artfulpaperdoll.blogspot.com/ or http://www.papercatdesigns.ning.com/ . My contribution was a beaded bracelet and a story about her special performance in Swan Lake. I painted her ballerina dress and slippers in the journal. She also needed a name. I was apprehensive about being the person to suggest it, but I was the third person to get her and still no name. So I suggested Bella Rose. It was alot of fun.

This is a necklace I made today also. Now I need to get sewing. I have lots to get done this next week. I have been speaking with a wonderful woman named Rose is a pretty shop up near Seattle and I have a few ideas for her. I am going to blog about her and her shop soon. I am also learning how to design my own fabric. I am working on some drawings so I can send them out to http://www.spoonflower.com/ . This is a company with the most amazing idea that lets people create their own fabric. I also want to dye some of my own as well. Just busy, busy, busy, but I would not have it any other way.

And you can see what I am up against. I am trying to draw, bead, sew, work on the computer all with sleeping cats on top of what I am doing. (except the sewing, they arent allowed near the fabric :) ) So,,,, I hope you all have a creative week. Until next time,,, gail

Along the Garden Path

Hi,, its Pink Friday again:) This is a special shopping event held each week at Make Mine Pink. there is a new theme each friday. This week all of the participating shops will be posting products for this weeks them, Along the Garden Path. There will be so many beautiful floral and garden inspired gifts being offered. Some will be hand made others will be vintage garden finds. It will be one day only, this friday. So follow this link for this fun event. www.makeminepink.com/pink-friday.

These photos are from a beautiful garden I visited at the Horsefeathers antique shop in Sandwich on Cape Cod. Her shop is full of beautiful vintage linens and lace. Its one of the most beautiful shops I have every been in and the garden in the front was so pretty! Have a pretty day! Until next time, gail

Back from Cape Cod

Hi,,, I feel like I have been gone for so long. I was away for 8 days and I never leave for that long. But it was soooo much fun. I flew into Providence RI and met 2 friends there. Nancy from Florida, Cindy from Seattle, and Marie from New York. We stayed a really nice Mariott Residence Inn. Saturday we toured some of the Mansions (the small summer homes of the Rockerfellers and such) in Newport. Had dinner and some shopping at the Harbor. But in Rhode Island its the "Hawba" lol (love their accents :) ) Sunday we drove up to Cape Cod for our retreat hosted by Joyce of Make Mine Pink. It was an adorable beach house with two smaller cottages. Joyce and her daughter Katie had everything just perfect. Our cottage was stocked with food, drinks, linens. I wont lie, it was soooo cold for me coming from AZ. I also know that my friend Kim from southern Texas was pretty darn cold too! But it was still soooo much fun. We had workshops to help with our cameras and photo taking. This was a huge help for me, I learned alot. We had a morning on the beach for "playtime" with hula hoops and building sand castles. We made gratitude journals. Now this was my kind of playtime. Thats exactly what I would have been doing as a child. Playing with paper, crayons and glue. lol. We had games! We played a game called left,right,center and let me tell you, the winner walked away with about 30 gifts! Congratulations to Marie! We had a scavenger hunt and the winning team each won a beautiful watch. We had plenty of time for shopping and antiquing and even went for icecream one evening. On our free day a few of us went to Provincetown. Very quaint little shops. I really enjoyed the shell shop. I also found a momma bird sitting on her nest with babies. And we had a pet bunny at the beach house. But soon enough it was friday and I was on my way back home to my kitties. They missed me horribly and I promised it would be awhile before I left them again :) So here is a few photos of my trip.

Thinking About Vacation :)

I have been really busy getting ready for my trip coming up. I am going on a mini-business-relaxation vacation. I will be attending the Make Mine Pink Retreat on Cape Cod. Joyce has rented a beach house and its gorgeous. I know she has so many fun, inspirational and informational things planned. There is a total of 9 of us going, and I know its going to be so much fun. I have never been to New England and this is somewhere I have always wanted to go. I think we will have some free time to explore and do some shopping. I know I plan on visiting Marion Pie Shop. Its came highly recomended from a very reliable source. lol

I have kind of slowed down on the business this week. I cant do everything and its high time I learned this. I have a pet sitting job that will take me about 4 hours per day and working full time too. So I am spending this weekend getting ready and everything sorted out. But as soon as I get back renewed, refreshed and ready to go, there will be alot of new things coming. This week I made this tote bag for my trip. I tested it out and used it today. Works good! :) I did make this cupcake wall banner that is part of a project that will be going to a magazine for consideration for a feature.

I will be around to visit you all! Have a very Happy and Blessed Memorial Day. Many thanks of gratitude for everyone serving our country and to those who have served to make America the country it is today :) Until next time............gail

Hi,, its Show and Tell time :)

Hi, I hope everyone had a great spring weekend? Its been a pretty busy week around here. I did get a few things done and that is always good. I just got finished watching a show on CREATE. This is the most awesome channel I have on cable. They have lots of cooking, travel, entertainment, quilting and knitting, sewing and my favorite painting shows. I really like a series they have on now with a husband and wife team, Gary and Kathwren Jenkins. They teach oil painting, and it actually makes sense. When I get back from my retreat vacation to Cape Cod in a couple weeks, I am really going to give this a try. I love drawing and painting, but have not had any formal education. Garys instructions are very good.

I worked on some new jewelry. The lavender dragonfly is an order, but I will be putting the pink dragonfly on my website. The next necklace is ornate and victorian looking, but I really think I would like it with a T shirt and jeans. This little doll is for a project called Comfort Dolls. Women all over the country send in small little dolls with an inspirational message of hope and they go out to womens shelters all over the country. We have a batch of dolls from us at Make Mine Pink going to our favorite place, Enchanted Makeovers to go to a very special group of girls. If you get the chance check out their blog. http://www.comfortdolls.blogspot.com/ . Next was an idea I had working with my cupcake idea again. So this has been my weekend,, what did you all do? (()) Gail

Romantic Roses for Pink Friday

I hope everyone has had a great week. I have been so busy, but this is a good thing~~~right? So I missed show and tell monday, but I definately dont want to miss Pink Friday at Make Mine Pink. I am sure you all know by now, however if not, you dont want to miss this event. Tomorrow for one day only all of the participating boutiques at Make Mine Pink will be having a special themed shopping day. The theme this week is one of our favorites. Romantic Roses. So if you love roses like us just follow this link. www.makeminepink.com/pink-friday . There will be gorgeous hand made items for your home or jewelry to wear. There will also be alot of beautiful vintage roses on linens, china, tea cups, etc. This is truly going to be the one pink friday you dont want to miss!

I also wanted to let you know about a wonderful opportunity going on as well. On my right hand sidebar you will see a widget for Enchanted Makeovers to "chip In" I have a more detailed post about Terry and her work with Enchanted Makeovers a few post down, but this women is great. She has a non-profit organization and makes over womens shelters. Her work has been so successful and has changed so many young womens lifes. Her current project is called Vista Maria and its in Detroit. At Make Mine Pink we are collecting money to buy the materials for 20 hope chests to be made for this project. From what I understand there is a very nice man in Utah who will be donating his time to build these for the shelter. This will be a special place for the residents, who are girls from 11 to 18 to keep their valuables and treasures in as long as they are staying at Vista Maria. These girls have nothing, but with the help of all of us maybe we can make their day a little brighter and give them hope for the future. Thank you for listening! :) Have a pretty week.

Beautiful Blue for Pink Friday

Its time for pink friday again. I love this time of the week. I love the challenge of coming up with something new to fit our theme. All of the participating Make Mine Pink boutiques will be offering wonderful selections in gorgeous shades of blue. If you are a fan of Victoria magazine you know every year they have one issue devoted to blue and white. That issue is on the news stands now as well. Its the perfect color for the upcoming warm weather. Check out all of the shops, there will be beautiful blue jewelry, vintage linens, needle point pillows, one of a kind art work. Its one day only, tomorrow May 8th. www.makeminepink.com/pink-friday. Have a great day and enjoy the Beautiful Blues,,,,gail

Show and Tell & Little Lotti

Wow, another week has gone by. Its almost half way through the year! Do you realize that Christmas will be back in stores in four months. Thats just down right scary. I want to make my cupcakes and sweet dreams bakery into Christmas ornaments this year. I guess I had really better get started on that. But for now its Mothers Day and if you are looking for a perfect, unique and original present this year, dont forget about the Shop Hop going on at Make Mine Pink. There is a button on my sidebar to register to join in all the fun and find great gifts. Hey I even buy my own Mothers Day present each year. I have been really busy making new jewelry with the great roses I get from my friend cindy. She had makes these ceramic roses and I love the colors. (http://www.angelheartdesigns.com/) These three bracelets and necklace are listed on my website now. I love the red necklace, it just makes me laugh.

Another very talented lady is Brandie from http://www.littlelotti.com/ . She designs and makes a line of childrens clothes that is just adorable! She had a contest on her blog celebrating her 100th post. I was so lucky to have won! It was an adorable skirt and tank top and a really sweet doll she made. I was giving the skirt to my grand daughter Mya. I got my mail friday night and got so excited that I drove straight to Mya's house. I didnt have my camera with me! Thats what I get for being so impatient. But I borrowed the photo from her website so you can see it. I took the photo of the doll. Mya isnt getting that,,, its MINE! lol Mya has never played with dolls, however I still do. :) Her workmanship is beautiful. Great quality. Her photography is awesome. It was wrapped so sweet. SO be sure to visit her website. Thank you for my beautiful prize. Have a great week.... gail