I've been made....

What is a crafter to do in a new town?

Where are the good stores?

How do I make connections?

Who will buy my goodies?

Ahhhh, I've got it all figured out now. You need family.

Yes, family as in mom and dad and siblings... but also family as in la familia.

You need a gang, a posse, a support system.

You need friends.

I have been invited to join the Phoenix Craft Mafia.

In future posts there will be more information about them.

But for now, check out the website linked above.

If you look at the blog page there are links to all of the member's shops.

There is some talent here!

check us out!

My little Diva

Today was supposed to be one of those nice, nothing out of the ordinary days.

I had lunch with sweetie and then I was going to send off some packages and run some errands.

Lunch was great and I was on my way to do the mailing and the phone rings.

It's sweetie.

"I found a chick" he says.

"Excuse me, you what?" I was certainly perplexed by what he could mean by this....

"An abandoned baby bird!"

I turned the car around and went back to the parking lot where I left sweetie and he found the "chick".

She (I am assuming, I have no idea what the sex of this bird was, but female works better for this story) was so cute and and little and so chirpy!

Sweetie's coworkers got her in a bowl and I whisked her away.

But now what?

Ah, the Animal Hospital, they will know what to do!

I stopped at the Hopi Animal Hospital and the wonderful staff there gave me the number of a Wild Animal Center and a tiny syringe so I could feed this tiny little thing that kept screaming at me.

So home me and the little one went....she was screaming at me the entire time.

I got her home and fed her some cornmeal mix and water with the syringe..the only time she stopped screaming was when she was eating.

My little Diva....

After she got a little food in her tummy it was time to relax.

Isn't she the cutest???

I gave Liberty Wildlife Rehabilitation a call and they said to bring her on down!

So now my little Diva is safe and sound and will hopefully grow up to be a happy and healthy quail.

What an exciting day it turned out to be!

Inspiration and Before and Afters

The hot topic on the blog scene lately is Inspiration/Re-fueling.

What makes us sit down at our easels, looms, pottery tables, laptops, etc. and dive in?

I am not sure what makes me do it, but when I am cutting out images or putting paint to canvas or stringing beads and turning wire I just know it feels good. Hours pass by like seconds and suddenly there is a special creation in front of me that I can't wait to share.

I never know what I am going to end with. Even if I start with one idea, the finished prduct is rarely what my mind imagined when I took to the first step.

A few nights ago I had an idea....I put a few things together and it just felt wrong. I set it down for a minute and picked up something else and then said ~ whoa! I know! I went back to my original materials and came up with something different, better, perfect. It just happened...like magic, I guess.

Maybe its that feeling that keeps me coming back.

During my creative flow the other night I kept getting frustrated with myself because I could not find anything. I knew I had what I was looking for but who knows where it could be....the is what I was dealing with:

Don't be fooled.

It looks all nicely contained....it wasn't.

What is in those boxes? I have no idea.

What are all those things stacked up? I have no idea.

If I needed a hole punch, where would I find it? Again, I have no idea.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
I took EVERYTHING off the shelves, all of it. I sorted it in to nice piles that made sense to me and started to pack it on the shelves once more.

an arial photo was necessary to get the whole idea of what this was all about:

This was no easy task.

But amazingly enough....pooof!

A reorganized shelf!

Hole punch? Yup, I know where that is!

Paper Glaze? Yup, I know where that is!

Stamp pad? Yup, I know where that is!

Even Ambrose has a nice reorganized cabinet for his lantern to perch upon!

I think I am even inspired to mess it all up again!

xoxo

Introducing......

Ambrose

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Ambrose is my new elf friend.

He brought along his elf forest.

They live happily contained in a lantern.

Welcome Home Ambrose!

I adopted him and his trees from Vanessa Valencia at her Etsy shop, A Fanciful Twist.

They seem like they were made for the lantern that I picked up for no particular reason not too long ago! Serendipity?

Ambrose and his other friends were scooped up in a blink of an eye. I am just THRILLED that I was able to scoop one for myself.

Sunsets, rainy days and the end of artist block!

What a couple of crazy days around here!

Earlier this week it was 110...didn't want to move, wouldn't go outside, the AC on all day.

Then came some clouds....

Then came the beautiful sunset....

The next day as I was lunching with my new friend Jen, the most amazing thing happened...

Yes! That is rain! In the desert! In May!

For 2 days it was rainy and lovely. There was even thunder.

What a wonder reprieve from the desert heat.

Luckily I have a wonderful little covered patio with a daybed where I can read and enjoy the weather. A little slice of heaven.....

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Without the heat to drag me down I was even able to finish a few pieces of jewelry. They are up and about in the Shop.

I also finished the sister painting to King of Spring.

This is Summer Time...

Seashells, and mermaids and clouds of glitter. An excellent way to spend a day at the ocean!

You won't find this darling at the Etsy shop. She may already have a home.

But do not fret! There are still two more seasons to go and an imagination full of other ideas just around the corner!

See you there!

xoxo

Here I am! Here I am!

where has the time gone.........?

I have been getting ready for my jewelry sale next week. Making new treasures and getting everything all set up. I am very very excited!

REMINDER:

Saturday, May 31st

1-4pm

My house

I hope to see you there!

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OH MY!!!

There was some excitement last week. Some very sneakie sweeties in my life gave me a surprise party! I thought I had it all figured out...nope, they got me good!

I came home from what I thought was my surprise (an afternoon at the salon with my dear friend Deb) and my house was full of wonderful people!

There were wonderful homemade enchiladas and a beautiful PINK icecream cake.

I took some pictures that night but they all came out blurry! You will just have to use your imagination....your home full of wonderful friends and wonderful food.

I did receive lots of great presents! I am so spoiled.

Sweet Romy sent me a crown full of handmade and vintage goodies.

Thank you to Emily at The Black Apple for sharing her pattern to make these adorable dolls!

This funny duck just cracks me up!

Momma also sent some goodies but its too dark to get good pictures of them tonight!

But trust me, they are wonderful goodies!

Thanks Mom!

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The new business cards are here! The new business cards are here!

Thanks to Zazzle for a great job!!!

I just love these cards. The colors are amazing!

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AAARRRRRGGGGGG!

Sometimes a girl just want to be a pirate.

This year I just missed the Swashbuckler's Soiree on Donna O'Brien's blog.

Hopefully she will repeat this amazing event next year...cause I am starting to prep already!

Check this out!

oh yeah....

Cookie Recipe time!!!

yum yum!

Not too long ago I bought some Tessa Thai Tea mix from a chain store to make the yummy Thai Iced Teas at home. I looked on their website and they don't seem to carry it so just "google" or use your favorite search engine to find it near you! You can also try Whole Foods, other health food stores and places like that.

Simple to make...buy mix, boil water, make tea, pour over ice and stir in milk. Voila!

To my joy and surprise there was a Thai Coconut Cookie recipe on the box. YES!!! I loves all these things! :)

Quickly! To the mixing bowls!

(crash, pour, stir, crash, stir and done!)

I preheat the oven, rolled the crazy orange colored dough into balls and put them in the oven....They come out perfectly flat and kinda sticky...HINT! let them cool completely on the cookie sheet and then they are easy as pie to lift off with a nice thin spatula.

So delicious!!!!

Good luck finding the tea! It is well worth it!

xoxo

Shop Update!

Garnets and peridots and amethysts.... oh my!

The bracelets to match the earrings are now in the shop!

Happy Shopping!

My Birthday Adventures!

my oh my! nothing in my world is ever ordinary....

But before I begin~

Happy Birthday little brother!

I hope you had a great day!

Ok, on to my story:
The weekend started out great!

Sweetie and I had dinner with our friend Ryan.

Out for a nice relaxing Mexican meal with Mango Margaritas for me!

Saturday was going to be busy!

I had to pick up the ranunculas I had this great florist in Scottsdale order for me!

North Scottsdale Floral ~ hi!! and thanks!!

I did not realize it was the end of the season and I did not want to miss out.

They did not let me down! take a look at these beauties.

After our florist adventure we were off to Tucson!

I wanted, no, needed to get there as quickly as possible to pick up my birthday gift for myself....my crown!

A big thank you to Vanessa Valencia (please visit her blog A Fanciful Twist, you will be happy you did!) for sharing with me where she got her crown and how to find the store.

If you are ever in Tucson you NEED to visit Bon. It is filled with all sorts of treasures. It is absolutely wonderful. I did not want to leave...in fact I would very much like to live there!

To see see pictures of Bon, visit A Fanciful Twist, this link will send you to Vanessa's post about the store!

This is my crown and I could not be happier!

The rest of saturday we played with our new Wii! wow is that too much fun!

But then it was time for rest...Sunday was my birthday and I wanted to be ready for a fun day of who knows what was in store....little did I know....

I woke up in the morning with the worst sore throat..you know that dry feeling and you keep swallowing but it does not help and then you drink a ton of water and then you feel better? Well I drank a ton of water and nothing helped! And then as I woke up more I realized I could not breath so well..yikes...and it felt like something was stuck in my throat...I thought it was a bug..I sleep with my mouth open (hehehee). Nope, could not get anything to come up and this difficultly breathing was starting to get a little concerning...I woke Sweetie up and told him what was wrong...I was even talking funny. This was not good!

Off to the Emergency room we went!

Well long story more or less short my uvula (that thing that hangs in the back of your throat) was all red and swollen! That was what I felt in my throat and what was blocking my airway!
After some IV steroids and antihistamines and way too long in the ER we were able to go home. They said I had an allergic reaction to something...pollen in the air most likely...

We tried to make the best of the day. We picked up some lunch and a new game for the Wii and just hung out at home. We put off our nice dinner and presents until later...I can't believe I let him put off presents, but boy was I beat from the day. Hopefully tonight we celebrate properly.

Life with me is never boring!

xoxo