A lovely gift from a lovely lady, Cathy Purcell

Don't you just love going to the mailbox and finding letters or packages?  It is always so exciting to find something that is not a bill or an advertisement trying to get me to sell my friends updated satellite packages!

I recently had one of these lovely experiences. In my mailbox was this wonderful package that when I opened it I immediately started thinking of the ocean.  It had that color of blue that I associate with cool days at the beach and little seashell accents on the card with a real starfish that I can add to my collection of shells. I was immediately feeling a little bit of peace and I hadn't even opened the package all the way to see what was inside.

Can you guess what was inside?  Have you already been to Cathy's web site and seen her scarves?  Well, my scarf is one of her hand painted 100% silk, she uses a Shiboni type of technique that makes it easy to care for. All you do is hand wash in cold water, line dry and iron on a silk setting.  Her scarves have gone through at least 3 washings at various stages so you don't have to worry if it get's wet! And it says forest to me!  I live in the middle of a forest on the side of a mountain and she so thoughtfully did a little research on me to see which of her designs would make a special gift just for me.  If you have not checked out her web site and gotten one of these wonderful scarves, I suggest you run, not walk over there right now.

If you are following the blog hop chronologically then you should have come from here and you are headed to the next stop here.  If at any time you get lost just come back to my page and click on the list below to get you where you need to go.

On this blog hop I have added a little freebie below that you can download and the instructions are in the post below this one.

Now, I have a SECOND freebie just for those of you on this blog hop if you go to my facebook page and LIKE my page, click on the freebies my tab and you will receive a set of 3 textures that you can add to your photos.  Instructions on how to use them are included.  There is an expiration date to the coupon so don't delay.

Thank You for participating in this extravaganza of creativity! If you would enjoy looking at my web site you can find my art  Here.

Brenda Geiger

Carolyn Carleton

Cathy Purcell

Christa Thomas

Deborah King

Jenna Alexander

Joanne Freeman

Kate Gadd

Lis Dunn

Lisa Lovestrand

Liz Bradley

 

Mikel Lyman

 You Came From Here

Pamla Klenczar

You Are Here

Renee Ortiz

You are going Here

Renee Sendelbach

Sheila Rumney

Stacey Curry



A Little Gift for You 

You can find both designs HERE as a little gift just for you.

I've used 4" x 4" tiles that are recycled from a bathroom remodel. I cleaned the edges up of extra grout by rubbing them on a concrete block, which is a lot faster than trying to scrape it off with a knife. Thanks David for the idea! Then I washed the tiles and laid them out on brown paper to protect my table top and painted a coat of mod podge on the top using a foam (disposable) brush. I already had my designs printed on card stock and trimmed. Then I centered them on the top of the tile and spread another thin coat of mod podge over the card stock design.

Make sure to brush only once and only one way or your ink will run.


I then just placed a fan to blow over the tiles and dry them a little faster.
I had 3 good coats of mod podge (drying between each coat) on my tiles then left them to cure over night.
I used felt that I had left over from another project and traced around the tiles then cut out the felt, remember you want to cut inside your tracing as you want the felt to be just a little smaller than the tile. I used hot glue but you could use whatever type of glue you like to adhere the felt to the back of the tile. You could use cork for the backs of your tiles also.
I then tied them with ribbon added the gift tag which I made with the leftover card stock from my printed designs and I have some lovely gifts for the ladies in my art club! I drew these designs in CS5 Photoshop and made the papers on the creating tile myself. Enjoy!

Christian Graduates and God Saves Pam's Car

  Christian 

 Dad Craig, Christian, Grandpa Gene, Grandma Dot, Aunt Vicki

Christian entering the auditorium

Presentation of the Diploma by mom and dad.

Here he is the proud graduate!!!  William Christian Laessig has now graduated and has a job and a drivers license.  He had to have a full time job to pay for his insurance.  He plans on going to college.  YEAH! We are so proud.   

 Throwing of the Caps

Auntie Gale, Grandma Rose, Mom, Christian, Charlie

Mom, Christina and Ann Usher (Sailor's mom)

William Christian Laessig and Best Friend, Conner MacArthur

It has been a wild and crazy trip in order to get to KC for the graduation. I told David (DH) several days ago that I was going to take my car and he kept insisting I either drive one of his BMW's off the lot at Godfather's Pawn or even fly. Well, he finally got that I was going to drive my car so the day before I was to leave he finally popped the hood and found, no oil and the air filter had fallen off. Who knows how long that had been that way and how much longer it would have continued. Then he said I needed new tires but then the tires could wait until winter. So he then tried to adapt the part that didn't work and he had to get another part which he brought home and put on early Friday morning. So now I'm ready to go right?  We are now at Friday noon. I get in the car and head to the pawn shop to pick up some albums for Christian, as I pull into the lot my car then makes a grinding noise.  sigh... So David decides it is the brakes and now he has to pull it into the shop and replace the front pads and rotors, which will only take 1/2 hour.  Uh Huh! So 3 hours later I'm still waiting...  I call everyone and let them know I'm not leaving for a while.  So then we take the car for a test drive and now there is a funny noise in the rear.  So in the parking lot of the library, David gets out of the car and has me drive around and around hitting the brakes while he runs from side to side to try and determine where the sound is coming from.  Finally as a crowd gathers to see this funny site he decides it is the right rear brakes.  So back to the parts store and then to the shop to replace that one. Finally, I call everyone and say I won't see them and then my sister to say I wouldn't be there until late that night. All thru this I'm trying to contain my frustration and just think how this is God stopping me from having an accident or something worse. As I take a deep breath I am able to let it go and relax and set myself in the moment and know it is OK that I will not arrive until late.  I'm so glad God was watching and taking care of me.

The graduation was great with talks by friends and family about each graduate with slides shows of their childhood set to music. They had photo montages and cake and cookies then a break to set-up for the evening party.  Lots of wonderful food at the party, a DJ and dancing and great fellowship.  All in all a really cool graduation!