THANKFUL

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!! I hope everyone has a wonderful day full of family, food, and fun!

Today I am ever so thankful for:

My husband, Mike
My mother, brother, father, and Mary
The memory of my beloved grandparents
My cousins
My bestest girlfriends
Hanging out with Noreen
My blog buddies
Buddy and Pal
Home
Club
Tab
books
Basic Grey paper
kindness
John Irving
Chicken pecan salad at Portillo's
fountain pop in a styrofoam cup
Crocs
Barq's diet root beer
peonies
almonds and grapes
vintage buttons
Doris Day
Kids in the Hall
sourdough bread
Plainsong
Taco Bell
bubble gum
documentaries
Steve Martin's Let's Get Small album
the ocean
solitaire with cards
Lisa's Airplane Trip
Flatiron building
blue skies
rainy days
Mozart
Woody Allen movies
bagels and strawberry cream cheese
Bach
Vivaldi
The Who
Verdi
Naps
Wagner
The Mavericks

trees
cats
autumn
dogs
vintage photos
Renee Fleming
antique shops
A Fine Balance
Indy 500 races before 1997
good mattresses and pillows
the Golden Gate Bridge
Harry Potter
Sanfratello's pizza
cozy blankets
Dwight Yoakam
The Office
Publisher's Weekly Fall Announcements
Somerset Studio and Legacy Magazines
Loretta Lynn
The Beatles
Carol Shields
childhood trips to Disney World and Rocky Mountain National Park
cellos
Elizabeth Berg
California
Harriet the Spy
Yo Yo Ma
Bainbridge Island
popsicles in 1974
cool cars
birdies
rub-ons
rubber stamps
swaps
round robins
Wicked
W-Kim
24
All In the Family
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Book stores
Magazine stands
Signed Artist Postcards from the 1920's
Star Wars
Dick Van Dyke show
Toots
New Carlisle, Indiana

and I thank you for reading this list! Please feel free to post a list of things of your own in the comments section!!!

Life is just a Bowl of Fairies, Part One

AMMENDED ENTRY ON 11/20/06: Just wanted to say thanks to Jane for the title of this blog entry, thanks to Trish who took all of the pictures, and thanks to Beth for putting all of our fairies in this bowl on her dining room table for the photo opportunity! I was just standing around drinking Tab during this time!

This past weekend Jane, Trish, and I went up to Beth's house in Wisconsin. We spent the entire weekend engrossed in either shopping, talking, eating, sleeping, and best of all....crafting! We had talked over the previous months about some projects we wanted to try. First on the list was "making fairies!" Above are the finished projects! Aren't they just dear!!! Close-ups to follow in the entry below and future entries, but this picture is just a great representation of our weekend!

Here we are arriving on Friday night to the beautiful studio set-up that Beth had ready for us! Wine and Tab for all!!! Friday night was spent showing and telling with various art works, vintage postcards, and ephemera.

Saturday morning we woke up (too early for some!) had breakfast and went to Madison for a stamp/scrap expo. There were only a few good vendors there, which was good for the cash flow. We all managed to find some great stamps and accesories and finished the first part of our day with lunch at Noodles and Company. Delicious. Oh, we squeezed in a trip to the local scrapbook store too!

That after afternoon and evening was spent in various stages of creating at Beth's house. In adition to the fairies, we all wanted to try our hand at altering cabinet cards and you will see some of those below. Total blast! Beth also showed a technique for backgrounds with tissue paper which was very cool. I was working on one of my proposed five Christmas memory books which was very time consuming, but very fun! Please see Beth's blog (Seaside Dreamer) for the one she did with Fruitcake paper by Basic Grey. Her book is perfectly stunning! Anyway, sneak peaks of that to come in the future as I did not get very far on Saturday night, although I did manage to stay up until midnight (miracle!).

Sunday morning we lounged for a bit and then had to run errands to Kinko's, Starbuck's, and Archivers. And then lo and behold, a trip to the local antique mall ensued! This mall is so top notch and the prices are so reasonable...at first I was all...oh we don't need to go there...and then when I set foot inside I was on a true antique high and did not want to leave! Total treasures were found and I am determined to figure out my digital camera so I can show you!!! We arrived back in Illinois in the early evening hours having had a wonderful weekend of friendship and creating!

Life is just a Bowl of Fairies, Part Two

This is Jane's wonderful Wish fairy!!!!!! She is so gorgeous!!!
Beth had masks for us to alter. See below for a before shot. This is the way cool Winter Queen mask that Beth altered prior to our arrival. It was so gorgeous. This is a before shot of Trish's work area. She and Beth are the tidiest workers. Jane and I are kind of sloppy and I tend to take more than my share of space, just ask Trish! Also note the wine bottle! Makes for happy crafters!
We altered cabinet cards! Finally! We have been wanting to try this forever. I don't know why we did not do it before because it was lots of fun! This is Trish's first card and it is gorgeous!!!! She did a great job with the border and her hanging apperatus, love the vintage button on the top! The phrase Trish used on this piece (Oh how happy are they) is from an old Methodist hymnal that Trish had.
These are two of Jane's first altered cabinet cards ever!!! Very impressive and totally cool!
Here are Beth and I at the beginning before everything was strewn all over the tables and floor! Please note how wonderfully she had everything set up for us all!!! It was like going to a great art retreat but it was at someone's house, which was even better cause you could totally relax!
This is one of the fairy wands that Beth made! Pure genius!
Another great cabinet card from Miss Jane!

Our wonderful hosts!!!!!!!! John, Jack, Sophie, and Beth! Thank you so much for having us over! You guys are the perfect hosts!!!

M is for Manners

Here is the page I did for Lynette's alphabetica journal. For the background I used a piece of vintage wallpaper from a pack I purchased from Pam Garrison. The picture of the very proper lady is one I found in an antique shop and I colored her with a lovely shade of pink Prismacolor pencil. I went to the used book store specifically looking for an old etiquette book and found this one from the 1960's. It is Hilarious!! The page featured above is about luncheons and it actually says to greet your guests at the door and have "the servant" take their coats or something like that. Servant??????? How many people had those? I suspect not a lot, cause no one in my family had one! My how far we have come from those days.......when reading through the manners I would say that some are certainly outdated, but many of them should be practiced again!!!

I am off for a weekend of extreme fun in Madison, Wisconsin. My friends, Trish and Jane, and I are going to our friend Beth's house to spend the weekend creating! We have an agenda of things we want to do too! We are going to practice altering cabinet cards, make Christmas journals, show off a technique Jane and I learned with alcohol inks, and just generally have a grand old time. Oh, and there is a stamp expo in town too!! New stamps!!! (just what I a true stampaholic does not need, but it can't be helped!).

Let me know if you understand what I am talking about in the next statement......... I want to make four separate Christmas journals using the patterned scrapbook paper lines by Basic Grey (Blitzen and Fruitcake), Cosmo Cricket (Wonderland), and Daisy D's vintage Christmas line, Mistletoe Memories. I am obsessed with all of these papers!!!!! and I bought all of these papers! Now, who knows what I am talking about?

Have a great weekend!!

Vintage Postcards

When I first started collecting vintage postcards I concentrated on holidays. I soon amassed quite a collection of Thanksgiving cards. I think the three that are on this blog entry are my favorites. Of course the one above is kind of ironic as I have never made a turkey and most likely never will......

This year I am going to be at work on Thanksgiving day. For the past three years at Thanksgiving Mike and I have gone to my Dad and Mary's home on Bainbridge Island, Washington. I will sorely miss not going this year as it is truely one of the most wonderful places I have ever been. I would move there in a heartbeat, but Mike is a tried and true Chicago man, and how could I ever move that far away from my Mom, brother, and all my dear girlfriends! Sometimes I fantasize about taking two months off from work and just going out there to hang. We do plan on getting out there in the next several months though.
Anyway, don't feel sorry for me because I have to work. I volunteered to work Thanksgiving so I don't have to work on Christmas!
I will try to "showcase" some more of my Thanksgiving cards in the days leading up to Thanksgiving......and then we will move onto the Christams cards. Such a fun and special time of year!

Birthday Goings On

DATELINE: Saturday, November 11, 2006 Trish's Birthday; Day of Fun and Toots

Participants Above: Laura, Trish, and Jane

We started off at Cracker Barrell where the best breakfast in the world can be ordered. That is a picture of us after imbibing said breakfast (if anyone can ever beat their hash brown casserole I would love to know about it!!). We sat by the cozy fire and thought dreamy thoughts about our upcoming day!

After breakfast we hit an antique shop, a resale shop, and a cute gift shop in Wheaton, Illinois. Found some more great ephemera. Oh, yes, and we also stopped at Starbucks so we could turn Trish onto a Pumkin Spice Latte. She was not that impressed with them. More for us!!

We had scheduled a class at our favorite stamp store for the afternoon portion of our festivities. This is us with Dave in front of Stampology Chicago. If you want to find a warm, friendly, and fun place to shop for stamps, paper, ink, etc., this is it!!!!!!! Dave and his wife Sue (pictured below) own the shop and it is an A#1 place to go!

Our class was built around using Tim Holtz distress inks and the new daubers from Ranger. Wow! Great products!!!! Jane had to leave us soon after class for a previous dinner engagement (Booooo!!!), but Trish and I soldiered on and went to Archivers where we found some excellent Christmas paper by Cosmo Cricket. Then my Husband Mike met us for our favorite salads at Portillo's!!! Perfect day!!! So glad I got to spend Trish's birthday with her.

This upcoming weekend the three of us are off again to go up to Madison, Wisconsin for a stamp expo and to hang out at our friend Beth's house. We have a real agenda of all the stuff we want to make and experiment with!! Can't wait!!!!

Happy Birthday Trish!!!!!!

Laura, Bert, Trish circa 1989!

November 11th! Today is Trish's birthday!!! Happy Birthday to my friend Trish!

A CONSTANT FRIEND IS A THING RARE AND HARD TO FIND - Plutarch


This is what I wish for everyone:

A Friend who:

Stands by you through thick and thin
who always makes you feel valued and invaluable
someone who you can hang out with and just do nothing OR
someone you can hang out with and do the stuff that makes your soul sing,
someone who is really nice to everyone,
who is giving and kind,
who takes care of you when you need help, and
who you can count on no matter what,
who knows all your secrets and loves you still,
someone you could hang out with for days on end......

I wish you all a friend like this......Me? I am lucky, I have a friend like this. Her name is Trish!

Monday Night! Random Thoughts!

Pictured on today's entry are four of the postcards I bought last Saturday at another postcard show! I think the fashions and the photos of the early 20th century are just stunning! Picture number one tells you what movie Mike and I ended up going to on Friday night.....The Queen. It is the story about Queen Elizabeth and what happened with the royal family in the days following the tragic death of Princess Diana. It was really very good. Mike knows that I love Princess Diana and am still devastated by her death. It was really sweet of him to hold my hand during the parts of the movie that dealt with that because it still takes my breath away. He liked the movie too so it was a fun night out.
There has been no posting of my art projects because the one project I have been working on is a secret one for the 12 Days of Christmas. It has taken a lot of my time, but it is worth it cause I am in love with it!! Hope all the recipients like it too.

Anyway, I planned to come home from work today and work on something, but I just don't have the energy after work to really get into anything. I put clean sheets on the bed and watched some Oprah shows on Tivo. After this blog entry I will get under those clean sheets to read the million magazines I have upstairs, along with three new books purchased on Saturday night when we stopped by Borders. I am currently reading, I Remember Running by Darcy Wakefield.

This is a memoir written about the author's experience of contracting the fatal neurologic disease ALS at age 33. Of course, it is completely heartbreaking and awful, but the underlying theme about rising above hardship and adversity comes shining through. Lots of life lessons are contained in this book.
This Saturday I am going with friends to a class at a local stamp store, Stampology Chicago, and we are taking a class using Tim Holtz' distress inks, alcohol inks, and daubers. That should be a real gas. It is also my friend Trish's birthday that day so we are going to make a whole day celebration out of it.
Lastly, I made a little list in my purse journal about all the upcoming art retreats in 2007 that sound good to me. Some of them, like Artfest, are already closed for enrollment, but I just find it fun to carry around this list! If not this year, then next year I hope to get to one of these shindigs.

Artfest: March 28 to April 1 Port Townsend, Washington (which is only 40 minutes from my Dad's house!!!)

Artfiberfest: October 17 to 21

Art and Soul: Hampton, Virginia May 3 through 7

ARt Unraveled: August 2007

The only problem is that I get so overwhelmed (in a good way) in classes that I can hardly work on the project. Every time I take a class I say to myself this is the last class! But then I realized you don't have to do perfect work in the class, just learn the techniques, meet new people, and enjoy the process!!!

Friday Night! Random Thoughts!

It is Friday night! Mike and I are going out to dinner, and maybe to a movie (or Borders). The movies I most want to see are only playing on the north side of Chicago, of course!. Those would be the movies, "Babel" and "Little Children." "Babel" looks very interesting, and I just finished reading the novel Little Children and it was very, very good.

"Borat" is getting very good reviews, but I am sure that will be a mob scene on the first day of release. I am also interested in seeing "The Queen," but don't know if Mike wants to see that. I told him that he could pick the movie.

The illustration above is French. 1920's I think. From a French magazine called Gazette Du Bon Ton. Go look at some of them on Ebay! Very amazing!!! I love that Art Deco style! I have been wanting to get one for some time, but they are very expensive!!!
Buttons!!!!!! Why don't button makers put today's buttons on cute cards like this!!!??? These button cards make me so happy!!! I don't think I will ever use them on anything because they are so cool, but when I see stuff like this in an antique shop I go nutty!
Well, this is a disjointed entry, but I wanted to get something up here before the blog police write me a citation.

Ooohhh, I do have something important to say. See that picture over on the right at the top of my blog roll, for the 12 Days of Christmas? I got invited to be in this project!!! Wow, the caliber of people who are involved in it is very high, so I was very honored to be included!!!! What a fun idea! So go check it out and maybe start your own 12 Days of Christmas!!!

Good for what ails ya!

Jane and I went to a postcard show today. May I just say that going to a postcard show is as good as Christmas morning as far as I am concerned. Talk about being surrounded by glorious vintage images!!!! Here are three of the wonderful cards I got today. What I want to do is figure out how I can make collage sheets of some of the images from my collection. You know make all the pictures a good size to put on a sheet and then be able to sell them. I have been thinking of this for awhile, but have to figure out the logistics.
I have been going to postcard shows for years now. I always go with my Mom. This is the first time I went without her and I missed her. We have been collecting postcards by artists such as Philip Boileau

Cecilia Shand


Harrison FisherMargaret Tarrant

and many others. It is amazing how many beautiful vintage illustrations there are, especially from the first 30 years of the 20th Century. Stunning really.

Today's focus was on photographic images, mostly of women and children, that we can use in our art work. Jane and I found lots of great black and white real photo postcards and then we found this catagory of handtinted photos that were so beautiful. We came away with quite a haul and had a really good time besides. I could look at postcards everyday!!!

NEW BANNER!!!!!!

Thank you to the most wonderful and talented Heather Simpson-Bluhm who updated my banner!!! I love, love, love it!!! She used one of my brides with glasses pictures! I loved my old banner and I will miss it so much! But I love this new one too!!! I think it will be fun to change them every now and then!! (as long as my banner changer does not not mind!). Since I have no idea how much work is involved in changing/creating banners I can just sit here and ask for the changes...Heather does not seem to mind (at least not yet!). Heather, if you do mind, Please let me know!!! Heather is also the co-creator of the wonderful zine, Portals. If you have not seen it yet, please check it out. It is top notch. There is even a little picture of me and my stamping area in the current issue!!!!

Heather also did new banners for my friends Beth and Kim!!!! Totally cool!!!! I would like to see all Heather's banners in one place cause they are so cool!!!

Toot Toot!!!!

Toot: A shopping spree. Shopping with wild abandon with your closest loved one or a group of bestest girlfriends.

Mike and I went on a toot yesterday. We had a really fun time. Originally, we were going to toot and go see a movie afterwards, but the strong hold of the toot just kept going and we did not see a movie......just had an extended tooot.

Above you will see the new book by Sally Jean Alexander. The craft blogging world has been abuzz about this book and I found ONE copy at Borders which I promptly picked up and held to my chest with glee!!! Talk about beautiful and inspiring eye candy! Even if I never make a piece of jewelry there is so much stuff in here to springboard from and drool over it makes the book totally worth it!

When we started our day it was for lunch at Panera. Bread and soup! My fave!!! Then we went across the parking lot so I could show Mike the wonders of Staples. He liked it too!

Then we were off so I could use my coupons! I had coupons from Hobby Lobby, Joanne's, Borders, and Michaels. And being a true marketing lemming I could not let those coupons go to waste! Hobby Lobbey yielded some really cool trim at 40% off. On a side trip to Best Buy Mike was able to complete our Wilco CD collection and add some more to our U2 collection. I got the new CD by soprano Renee Fleming.

Then at Joanns Mike used my 50% off coupon and got one of his favorite magazines
Cook's Illustrated. If you don't know about this magazine (or its sister magazine, Cook's Country) and you love to cook, you must find these magazines. They are totally well done, beautiful, and have real and pertinent information in them!
Cancer Vixen has been on my wishlist for a long time. It just came out. It is a graphic novel (comic book style). I read the entire book last night!!! So good!! I love memoirs done in the graphic novel style. It is a totally different reading experience than just reading straight type, I find that I am much more immersed in the author's story this way. It is sort of like being deposited straight into the story! I highly recommend this book. If you have liked any of my previous suggestions, I implore you to go right out and buy this book today. You will not be sorry!
The new stamps above are from a toot the previous day with Miss Jane, aka, Fire Chief Jane! Aren't they totally lovely! The top two are from Postmodern Design. I am seriously going ape over every one of their stamps. They are genius.
Got this magazine with a 40% off coupon. It looks fun and fluffy!!


Yesterday at Borders I had my first book store latte!!!! Oh my goodness I felt like all those people I usually see browsing books and sipping their coffee. It was seriously weird!!! I had a Seattle's Best Vanilla Latte. Very good!! I went through the stacks and brought over about 8 books. Went through them and decided which I had to have right this instant. Those were the above-mentioned Sally Jean book, Cancer Vixen, and the above hot off the press book by Joyce Carol Oates. It looks very good and I started it last night, but did not get very far cause I fell asleep. No comment on the book there, it was after I had already read Cancer Vixen....

All in all a perfect day spent with my dear sweet husband....and to top it all off.....take out dinner was brought home from my all-time favorite restaurant....TACO BELL!!!!

Compete and Total Obsession

Here are two cards I recently made. I am loving the combination of vintage photos and rub-ons!!!!! The word Photographie on the top picture is a 7 Gypsies rub-on. The quality of their rub-ons is very high....if you see some in the store get them!

I am completely and totally obsessed with a Christmas gift exchange I am lucky enough to be in. I want to work on it every waking moment, except that darn job keeps getting in the way. I would work on it tonight, but I am just too pooped. This weekend should be clear sailing for the project though.

My friend Jane and I went to Staples today. I wanted to copy a bunch of vintage photos and our friend Shari told us that Staples does copies for 39 cents a page!!! Wow! Plus the man who helped us out was just the best, answered all of our questions and gave us tutorials on how to use the machine. I will be going there for all my copy needs!!!

Technique Tag Books

My friend Jane and I made a "naughty" run up to a stamp store about 25 miles from home this week. While there oohing and ahhing over some Tim Holtz Stamper's Anonymous stamps we wree treated to some demos of new techniques. The store owner had each of her techniques illustrated on tags and they were held together with a round binder clip....so two days later we decided to make our technique tag books!!! Above is my first page. The technique this illustrates is just a picture adhereed to the tag and a sentiment stamped on it. However, the part that is tagworthy is that the whole tag was brushed over with Golden's Clear Tar Gel. It gives the tag (or ATC) a finished and really cool look. We first saw this done on some ATCs when we were at Valley Ridge and they were awesome!

Above is the technique we learned at the stamp store this week. I call it the Plaid Technique. It is done with Ranger's Alcohol Inks....apply three different colors to your felt applicator. Then drag the applicator over glossy paper horizontally. Re-ink, and then drag applicator vertically. Voila...you have a plaid background. This is so addictive!!! You will want to check out tons of color combos!
I wondered what would happen if I used the same technique but on a matte coated paper. The look is great! More subtle and more vintage looking than on gloss. I used Matte coated paper from the Paper Cut for the sample above. The numbers were stamped with Versifine. They smeared a little, so I think drying overnight before doing anything would be a good idea.

Finally, see below. We went ooh and ahh over the new product by Ranger. Acrylic paints in a super convienent dauber packaging. They are called Dabbers....the paint is in a plastic bottle with a cap and applicator all in one. Very easy to use and not very messy at all! The colors are super wonderful. The tag below was first painted in .5 seconds with a pink, foam flower stamped with a darker shade of pink, and tag edged with a light blue dabber. Quick, easy, and fun!!!

It was really nice to play with techniques and to make this little tag book. I plan on adding to it over the next months and tying some ribbons around the metal ring binder.

It is great when you get so excited about the little things in life!!!

Magazine Heaven

I am in magazine heaven!!!!!! Look what I will be spending my weekend with........new issues of all of these lovely offerings!!!! Cloth, Paper, Scissors is such a cool magazine. I have not looked in it yet but the tag "Altered Vintage Postcards" has really got me hepped up!!! Plus, I think there is an article by the lovely Lesley Riley in there too!
I really love Legacy too! Anything Somerset Studios puts out I am thrilled by. The next issue of Legacy is going to have cover art by Linda Harre of Studio Stuff!!!!! Can't wait to see that! I may be camping out at Barnes and Noble!
My lovely friend Beth told me about Somerset Workshop at about 2 p.m. on Friday. I owned this copy by 6 p.m. on Friday!!! She said there were tons of cool projects in here with great instructions. I have only browsed through the mag for about 2 minutes so far, but I have to agree that it looks like a total winner!!! Wahooooo!
I read about this magazine on another blog (can't remember which one right now), and it sounded very interesting. I have not really read it yet, but on first glance it looks completely and totally cool!!!!
Well, what can you say about an entire special issue of Country Living devoted to antiques!!! I will be a whirling dervish of drool by the time I get through this one!!!!!

Let me know if I have sent anyone out to the magazine stand at the speed of light will you?????

Teamwork, Teamwork, Rah, Rah, Rah!!!

Above and below are greeting cards I made yesterday. Before I made them I was trying to make some "art" with ATCs and an Alphabetica journal page but nothing was turning out well, so I quit with those for the time being and went back to an area where I felt confident. I like how these two turned out. For all of you who might be drooling over those buttons, they are by Foofala from the Hall Pass collection, a whole big bag of them for $5.99! They are so cool!
The card below was made for me by my friend Jane!! It captures us drinking our Starbucks last week. We sat outside for a few minutes and a pesky bee would not leave us alone! Scene captured below!
As for the teamwork mentioned above, Jane and I had a fabulous idea today....the Jane and Laura Co-Op!!!! We both have a little problem when it comes to being domestic divas. The problem is that we are on the opposite end of the spectrum from that. Our houses need help, and when we try and take control by ourselves we become easily overwhelmed, so we are going to do our housework together, at least until we get organized and under control. Today Jane came over to my house (with Pumkin Spice Lattes' in hand, which is an expensive habit that we will not be able to keep up on a daily basis!). We straightend the bedroom, put the winter comforter on, put away laundry, discussed Jane's future employment options, and started organizing my stamp room. We only worked from the time I got home until the time I had to pick Mike up from the train, but we accomplished a lot. Tomorrow, we work here again, and then later this week we will be based out of Jane's house. It feels so great to get this stuff done, and it kind of reminds me of being a pre-teen when I used to hang out with my girlfriends all the time. It was like their house was my house, and we did everything together. There is something very comforting and reassuring about that.......Rah, Rah!!!!!