Hello Blog Land… I’ve missed you….

Well this has been a long time… Wow. What have I been up to??, getting what I’ve been dreaming about but putting off for years. My Teaching Degree in the upper grades. Yes. I did it! Wow… What a year… the hardest most challenging, But oh so worth it Year. Straight A’s Baby. Every weekend was taken up and my Family  and Home have been put on hold. Which comes to another thing that I have missed, My Art. My Art friends know how much  I love doing Art. For a while there  it was getting stale and not fun. I was losing my mojo and  It had  become what I have been dreading and  what I did not want EVER… a JOB. It is my Love, My hobby and my passion. Not a Job or something that makes me question every move I make. I have a Job, a full time Job that makes me happy, I am a Teacher and it is what makes me happy everyday, yes it is possible to have a job you love. Sure I love to sell my Art and supplies on Etsy.. but that is not what I have been all about. I am much more refreshed, much more ready to share and get back to doing what I Love… My Art. I want to share what Ive been making lately.. Yes, I spent the past week getting into the pool slowly…. It feels good.

These are some Mini Art cards.. Just some jumbo playing cards, that sparks my creativity.

One of my Birthday boxes to hold a gift for a friend.. these usually have Birthday candles, plastic ballerina, matches and a tiny note

 A project basket filled with vintage papers, vintage ribbons, velvet flocked fabric and much more to get me started on a Doll Book that I am working on

My new Halloween book, Titled “Something Wicked this way comes”.. I just love Halloween… this book is going to be very Wicked…and a little creepy…

I went Thrifting for the First time in I really cant remember the last time…. Lots of vintage patterns,  hot pink pom pom trim, vintage napkins to use as backgrounds of my collages and Art Journals, flocked vintage fabric in all colors and this box of French cotton twine…

Yes I am Happy. And I think my Daughter D is happy, remember her? She is 9 now. I know Ive missed so much in her Life this year, but I am trying to  make it up daily. We put up a tent in the backyard for her to do her Summer reading. Once in a while you can catch her reading her American Girl magazine in her private little space..

Yes, I am back and refreshed ! Ive missed you!

Lilia

This Christmas WE….

DECORATED:

 

Had yummy breakfast’s:

Lounged and Napped:

Stayed warm and out of the Rain

Spent time with Family (Darianne and her favorite cousin):

Played hours of Board games (our favorite is Aggravation):

Spent time with a great Friend:

Went to a Antique Mall: (Wertz Brothers in Santa Monica, thats Alice in front of our favorite vendor)

Crafted:

Had Christmas Dinner at Mom’s:

Time to get back to Routine.. back to School and Back to the Scheduled Program! Here’s to 2011.. Happy New Year and be Merry!

Winter Break.. back on the Blog….

Hello Blog friends. Its been a long while. I have been in school full time. At University California at Irvine. Its been challenging, hard work.. but in the end so worth it. I have not crafted in a while, I thought I forgot how. Its been a good break from the blog  and crafting world. I think everyone needs a break from time to time. I sure missed it. I decided to do some crafting for the last 2 weeks for Winter break. I have to share what I worked on. First the pictures for our Holiday card…

 

 

These pictures were taken in a total of 15 minutes. I get off work at 4 and the sun sets at around 4:45… I had to go home, get camera, family and run to the beach..
Its been such a wonderful Christmas. So relaxing, non stressful. I have never slept in so much in my Life. I can get used to this. I made so many little crafts for Christmas.. Christmas magnets for the fridge, package toppers, ornaments and worked on the yearly Christmas journal. Its a altered journal I work on every year over the Holidays.. I add pictures, letters to Santa, to do lists and journal about the past year. Here are some samples of the Christmas journal:

This journal is such a keepsake for our Family.. we sat looking at it the other day.. and so many memories came flooding back. I made many ornaments this year, here is a sample of one that is on the tree:

I also made a Winter door hanger for my Daughter’s room.. I really decorated her room this year, lights, tinsel and a pink tree.. it made her so happy. Here is the door hanger:

I finally got a chance to do a little thrifting in this last week. I found so much vintage mercury glass and lots of vintage Christmas ornaments and baubles..

I sure hope everyone is enjoying their Holiday and spending it taking long naps and enjoying each other and maybe getting a little crafting in. Happy Holidays!! I hope I will be back before school starts full force again in January!! xoxo

Summer Happiness

Collecting Shells… Playing at the Beach. What Summer is all about. Planning on making a Seashell Wreath with all these Shells. So glad Summer is here. Went to Arizona before the 4th of July. Did I really live in that heat?I pulled into Town into a store, not only 20 minutes came out and all rims were gone. Who does that? Hope they needed dull, scraped rims.. because thats what they got.  Miss my Mother in Law, though. Just wish everyone we love lived right in the same place.  We had fun going through her Cedar chest full of Family Treasures. She gave me my Hubby’s Little league baseball uniform. I put Darianne in it and it fit like a glove…

I love it! So cute.. he was exactly the same age when he wore it. My girl is growing. Speaking of Growing, I am making a Growth chart for my adorable niece. It is not even done yet, but got 3 panels done. They are 5 canvas panels.. I am using scrapbook paper, acrylics, water soluble crayons, vintage text, flowers, buttons and 1 huge vintage measuring tape. It just sits on my dining room table.. I work better that way. I walk by it and add something every once in a while.. If I walk by it enough, I might just finish it one day.  Here is a sneak peak..

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The Scrapbook paper is so adorable.. has all these adorable little vintage images. Love. I will show the whole thing when its done. Been teaching my last Art classes for a while at Paper Tales… my Last class will be August 1. Then I will be putting Art on hold for a whole year to finish School full time at the Campus of UC Irvine. Cannot believe it. I am looking forward to it but getting a little nervous.  I will still try to keep Art in my Life during this time , its my little release. I wanted to share another project Ive had in my head for a while. I took a large vintage white sheet.. cut 4 inches around the whole sheet, pleated and ironed the pleats.. then sewed it back on the sheet. It looks so whimsical on my dinning room table. here is a picture of what it kind of looks like..

I also did another page in Art Journal..

I also did a little thrift store shopping while I was in AZ..

Miss my AZ thrift Stores.. Went with my Fave Shopping buddy. We had so much fun..In this picture I spent under $10 for all of these things. 2 vintage pillow cases were $1 for both, pack of vintage cards .50, vintage scrapbook $1,  vintage flocked fabric $1 and the vintage jello molds… 2.99 for 1 pack and 1.99 for the other.. very cool. Not much else.. getting ready for A great Summer… Hope everyone is enjoying their Summer…xoxo

Long time no Post…

Life is a Big Bowl of Sweet red Cherries!

Its been a little while since my last post. Been enjoying these last couple of months. I think I finally have the swing of things here in Cali. You know when you have the perfect balance in your Life? Time with Family, out with Girlfriends, a Little Art, my long walks, Work & Play… Work & Play… It takes a while to get settled in a place. You have to meet the right kind of friends, cherish and balance the old ones, mesh with the perfect Families that have children (but who enjoy being with Adults at the same time). Its great when you have that perfect balance.  Ive  also been working a little on the house. Nothing big.. just tiny projects Ive been wanting to do for a little while. The other day went to a thrift store and a lady was walking in with a blank frame, I asked her if she was donating it , she eneded  up giving it to me. I spray painted it, then added a matt board back then painted it with chalkboard paint.  It goes perfect with the wall in my Kitchen..

I love these little projects that cost practically nothing. I am really liking crisp white everything lately. My last house had all the walls painted. The white seems to make everything look so clean..

and its not the perfect white either, its the shabby white… kind of like my Laundry room. I am finally going to attempt to work on my bedroom. I have a great friend Cynthia , and our favorite thing to do together is inspire each other to decorate our Homes. The great thing is that our Homes our about the  same size. We sat at the beach over the weekend and poured over decorating magazines while the kids played in the sand.  We are both going to make headboards for our beds. When we are done I will post. I think I am going to have her as a guest blogger every now and then.

These are  some of my Art journals..

I worked on a couple pages..

The ones on the bottom are for my adorable niece… still working on that book.. This weekend I have two big classes. 1 on Friday night and 1 on Sunday at Paper Tales in San Diego. Looking forward to creating with some Wonderful Ladies! I worked on 5 commission Canvases this past month. Most of them for Fathers Day.. but the last one was for Little Lila… it was her 1st Birthday. here is the canvas..

Thats pretty much it.. looking forward to the Summer.. lots of Beach days… and did I mention that my little California Girl is going to Surf Camp? Surfing is hard. I could barely get the board out past the tide. I know she will do better than I did. I know most of our AZ family will come and visit.. its already 110 there.. did I really live in that heat for 10 years? Still think its beautiful there and miss it from time to time. It been 2 1/2 years. Talked to one of my friends there tonight and I told her that we just had a Earthquake.. and she said “thats why we dont live there..” and then I asked her hot it was…. I guess we cant have it all.

My daughter is growing up.. light speed . Came home the other day and she told me she wrote two songs that day.. I asked her what the titles  of them were and  she said the first one was called “Its Serious” and the second was “You’re fooling me Around”.  Yup folks.. Christina Aguillera watch out! I had the hardest time keeping a straight face as she was telling me. All that Heartbreak  that she is singing about.. I wonder who did her wrong at 8. Love that kid! Love those freckles on her smoochy face… Gotta go.. going to go smooch that face! hugs

Whimsical little Girl collage and New Flip Flop book..

Worked on a Whimsical little girl collage this week! This is of my little girl when she was 3. I will be teaching this class at PaperTales in San Diego. I will post the date on my sidebar next week after Michelle receives it. I also worked on a new Updated Summer Flip Flop book. I will also teach this class at PaperTales. Here are pictures of Flip Flop Book 6.0…

This was really fun to make… lots of color…. Getting ready to take some Beach photos.. is anyone ready for Summer like I am?? flip flops, beach hat, sunscreen, watermelon, summer hummers, margaritas, shorts and tank tops.. The Beach….. Cant wait!

I am already teaching this class to a group of ladies in my Neck of the woods.. Since we dont have too many Scrapbooking and Paper Arts Stores here in the Beach area.. I am taking my classes on the road.. also closer to home to Manhattan Beach/Redondo Beach .. kind of like a Scrapbook consultant.. I have 2 Scrapbook get-togethers planned for next month. I just pack up my vintage suitcases full of goodies and Teach classes at your Home.. If you live in the Los Angeles Area and are interested please email me. Not much else happening . I have been making patio cushions and pillows , working on making a headboard for my bed and sewing little things like this Clothes pin bag made out of a vintage pillowcase ….

I am also impressed with the little herb garden we started a couple of months ago.. its already growing so nicely… used the basil in the homemade sauce the other day…

Well thats all for now…. Thanks for the sweet comments on the last post!

Welcome to the New Blog

Thank you for coming to the new Flea Market STudio Blog! Don’t you just love my new Banner? My friend Kat designed it for me. She is a buddy that I have had in the Art World since I started Scrapbooking. There are friends that cross over from the Art world and become more of a friend than a Art friend. My friend Alice  also happens to be one of those friends. The wonders of the Art community! I was so grateful when Hope  Wallace designed my banner about 3  years ago. I cannot believe its been that long! I started blogging on January 16, 2007. I look back now and cannot believe what a different time that was in my Life. I was living in Arizona.. working 2 days a week… enjoying my Art more than anything. What a difference 3 years make. I am living in California… working full time… and now Art is kind of on the back burner. Not as important as it used to be. Don’t get me wrong.. I do more Art than I post.. just not as excited to share it like I used to. Jaded? maybe. I said to myself that if Art stopped being fun.. that is when it was time to stop. It’s still fun, but not willing to make it part of my everyday. It is hard work putting your Art out there. You have to photograph, download, crop, come up with new and exciting things everyday. Live, Eat and Breathe it. Spend less time with your Family.. Friends and the Fresh air of the Outdoors. When you live in California where its sunny nearly everyday of the year.. the last thing you want to do is be inside.  I have made it a priority to be outside as much I can and the Beach.. calls my name daily. Why it was time to change the Blog. The funny thing is, I have a little feeling that this Blog will be updated more than the last one. Maybe I needed a little change.. a fresh look.. a new Home. Whatever it is.. I feel great about it!

I wanted to share a giant book I made for D. It is one of the biggest books I have ever made.. it measures 10 x 15. A huge challenge for me. It has been in the works for a while now. I finally just finished it the other day.  Here are some pages to share..

Thank you for Coming into the new and improved FLEA MARKET STUDIO BLOG!