small treasures & small blog candy!

Sometimes its those little treasures that make me smile ... i received an order from etsy in the mail today. I was soooo excited ... i ordered some buttons from Tessa Ann on etsy ... cute little hand made fimo type buttons. Look how wonderfully they were packaged ...


I almost didnt want to open the wrapping ... it was just so cool, like a little prezzie, just for me. The buttons are so cute and sooo colourful and exactly as they were pictured and they just made me smile from ear to ear. It's these small little splurges that can really make the sun shine inside and out! H came home from work, and like the little magpie she is, spotted the shiny buttons and ran off with quite a few. what she intends on doing with them, i do not know, but they also made her smile!


So here is your turn to smile ... leave me a comment telling me how you like to use buttons when paper crafting by Friday May 1st and I will do a random draw on saturday May 2nd and send the lucky random winner 5 buttons from the easter set. Dontcha just love that little easter egg on the button! too cute!!!

baggies and travels and its all good!

last wednesday, after closing up shop after a crop, in the parking lot, in the dark ... Erica "pst, Jo ... do you like to bake?" "Uh ... yeah Erica, i do" ... "want some of this? ... it's good?" she reaches into her car and pulls out a baggie of white stuff ... okay, seriously ... its a large baggie and the white stuff is liquidy ... it's a bag full of Amish Friendship Bread starter ... "Erica ... do you always keep that stuff in your car?" (laughing) ...
So anyways .... It's on Day 6 today ... I need to divy it up on day 10 and hand it out to 2 people ... let me know if you want some and we can meet up.
and Erica says it is really yummy ... so i cant wait to bake it up.

And here's my album from my cropping cruise ... yeah, the one that I didn't get to go on ... but Flat Jo got to go!!!!
Dearest friend Izzy, whipped up flat jo, two pictures of me (front and back) made of fabric (she used iron on transfers) and stuffed with kleenex (reminds me of puberty ... lol) and she took me on the cruise ... and i went everywhere and had a great time!!! So when she got home she made me this most darling album, filled with pages about my trip. This has got to be one of the most thoughtfull prezzies I have ever received, I just ADORE it!!! Thanks so much Izzy, you know i just love this album, and seriously, i still think you should submit it. So, here's a few pages ... great photos Izzy!!!


The real "Flat Jo" and the album!



Flat Jo getting ready to leave ... and hanging out at the airport!



Flat Jo chilling!!!

And here's a sneak peak of a little class I'm working on ... a special little project for little secrets .. complete with a hiding spot for something special! and loads of techniques on this one so i cant wait to run with it!



Thanks for stopping by! :)

time flys .... still .... again .... & always

geez sometimes the days just fly by ... with nothing too extraordinary happening ... except life ... and life in itself is pretty extraordinary ... so i guess ... yeah ... those flying by days are extraordinary in their own right ...

I have been playing with my scrap stuff ... it feels good to just sit down and play ...I made another cake ...yes i am totally addicted and now if need to find 3 part prezzies for people so i can wrap them in a cake ... thats kinda crazy ... shopping for prezzies that will fit the wrapping ...

This cake ... that gorgeous Lily Bee French Couture line ... actually they kind of look like pretty little hat boxes stacked one upon each other. And a layout ... i made a little layout ... well 12x12 lo, with more Lily Bee French Couture ... so that's it, I'm down to one page of the Lily Bee stuff and some bits and scraps ... so i guess i will make a few cards. So my local friends, rush down to POTP and pick some up before i get it all ... totally beautiful stuff.

reincarnated .... yet again

I have this little topiary fake tree ... that is well past its prime ... so, i have been decorating it with papaer flowers for the Pick of the Patch shop. In December it was all covered in christmassy yoyo's and a giant paper bow, In January I made bell shaped pink flowers with bead centers, and little butterflys on wires flying above the tree. The other day i revamped it for spring ... although it looks more like late summer to me ... it is supposed to at least be reminiscent of spring. I learned how to do these daisy's on the Craft Sylish site. They were designed by the incredible paper artist Jeff Rudell. Mine are kind different ... i went on a tearing frenzy .... no clean cut looking daisies for me ... i also glimmer misted the top layer and just used a punch to make the center. now if only i could master his other techniques ... check out these wigs!!!! smokin gorgeous!!!
So, that's my little tree ... not quite up there with the pro's but i like it just the same. As always, thanks for stopping by!

Happy Easter!!!

For those that celebrate, I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! We had fun! well mostly fun ... the traditional egg hunt ... nope we are not letting go of that tradition quite yet ... I had to laugh ... Hayley grabs a couple of eggs and tells me "gee mom your losing your touch, the eggs are easy to find" ... me snickering because she just walk past 4 eggs that she didn't find. So guess I'm not losing my touch ... at least not quite yet. We did the egg dying on Saturday night ... only it was more like quick, get them done, i have to study, then meet so and so at this place to go to a concert and then dinner .... ~sigh~ ... then serious studying today ... but a lovely dinner at Mom & Dads ... that was the best ... so overall, lots of fun ... here's a few pics ... can you find the two alcohol inked eggs ... next year, I'm doing them all like this!!!

cake & lily bee

I can make my cake ... just can't eat it .... while I was at the bookstore the other day, I was browsing through some magazines and the cover of the May/June PaperCrafts magazine really caught my eye. there was this cute little paper birthday cake made in bright & happy spring colours .. you know, lots of yellows & greens & pinks & turquoise. So of course off to the dollar store i got to pick up some cute little round boxes ... I went home and whipped up my own version ... using pinks and whites and slightly more girly accents. These are such a cute idea for gift giving ... imagine giving a 3 layer birthday present to someone, or having this at a bridal shower or graduation or just any kind of an occasion where you get to celebrate with cake and prezzies!!! I will be dragging it off tommorrow to the POTP store so if you want to see it IRL it will be there for a couple of weeks. And if you want to make your own, send me an email and i will help you with directions. My cake was made with Bazzill Swiss Dots in Salt, and MLYB ~ Baby Safari ~ Girl pattern papers.



Sandra got in some Lily Bee papers recently. This is a brand new company and the papers are from their first release. Check them out at the store or on their site. They are totally cute, nicely weighted and best of all ... double sided.

a few of my faves

I thought i would kinda create my own little online gallery by doing a slideshow. I am amazed at how many of my layouts have never been photographed, or if they have, i have somehow managed to loose the picture in my not so need photo filing system. I think I will have to work on organizing this soon. Or at least go through my layouts and take pictures so i can make one master file ... at any rate, reorganzing and reshooting will have to be one of my goals for this spring ... just gotta consider it as "spring cleaning" and who knows ... i might get started on it!

As always, thanks for stopping by :)

Finally ... tshirt weather ...

... or it is to some ... me, tshirt and light jacket weather ... whatever it was today, it was warm ... and the sun was glorious ... its amazing how the warmth and light from the sun can almost change anything ... so many people out walking today ... everyone seemed so cheerful ... a little sun goes a long way around here! I managed to scrap quite a bit on the weekend ... kind of wanted to be with my friends with at a scrapbooking retreat hosted by my buddy Diane of Get Creative Scrapbooking ... so i scrapped to as kind of a homage to the whole group scrapping thing ... wish i had been there, sounds like it was great fun, but I will be going to the next one in November for sure. Here's a little something I accomplished ... and yes, it is another baby layout ... I haven't finished them all by any means but I am getting a little tired of doing them, so i think i will change focus for the next little while and come back to babies in a month or so. Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Hope you had a wonderful birthday!!! and Welcome Home ... back to the chilly BC weather!



My two fave girls .... H & Mom!
I actually cleaned my house today ... wooo hooo!!! had doing it but always love the results ... Tommorrow I scrap!