Misc Crafty Things

 This is cool in a couple of ways...it's made using a wine crate from a local winery and my nephew's name is Justin. 

So many pots, not so many plants...still interesting.













I got some shutter doors at a garage sale a couple of years ago and they're just sitting around waiting to be put to good use.  I saw this at a local shop.  I'll have to pull out the top louvers of mine.

Vintage Postcard Crafting

My family has amazing postcards that are over 100 years old that belonged to my Great Aunt Myrtle in Iowa.  I made this charming changeable vase with digital images of vintage postcards - here's how I did it:

 

Cha, Cha, Changeable Vase

If you don't have your own vintage postcards, digital images are available at http://www.etsy.com/shop/JoanMartinFee - two different sets of three are available for ALL your crafting projects - they're scalable too so you can make them just the right size for your projects. You also receive an inspirational instruction sheet filled with holiday decorating and gift ideas.

Layer red and green paper behind image cutting out with decorative edge scissors. Glue together with glue stick. Glue to piece of red paper that fits in vase. Place smaller vase or jar inside larger vase. When the holidays are over, remove the Santa image and replace it with an everyday image.

Happy New Year!

Wishing you a healthy, adventurous, fun, exciting and fulfilling 2011. Happy New Year!!!

Last Minute Crafting

I ran to Michaels during my 1/2 hour lunch to pick up one thing - picture hangers for my brothers gift (pictures of that tonight). Over an hour later, I was back to work - us crafters are out in force - what I observed - people were buying decorative baskets, one woman was buying a huge ceramic teacup (I imagined it heaped full of craft products - hmmmm, Santa did you read that?), some had picture frames, some had baskets heaped full of different things.

While I was there, I got this grand idea to find my nephew, Brandon, a mailbox. He's five and LOVES to get mail - what he doesn't know is his Aunt Joan and Grandma are the senders of his goodies. My mom got him a wood mailbox, but it's not holding up well with the wet weather. I found a really cute small metal mailbox on a stand. It was perfect and 50% off. Now, I'll add his name on it.

This takes care of my shopping, except for the mad dash to the grocery store late tonight - do you get that I'm not thrilled with going out in crowds? Before grocery shopping, I'm going to finish up my bro's gift and add some minor things to a couple other gifts, I'll photograph them for you and put them on my blog.

Until tonight...have a wonderful afternoon.

Joan

Da Weekend

It was one of those weekends I long for...one with not too much pressing, the energy to get some things done and of course, to be creative!

I took these pictures last year, but since the season is changing I thought I'd include them. Ahhhh...

Friday, I had some work projects that needed done, so I got those out of the way - well, most of them.

Saturday, was spent doing some catch up things and in the afternoon my sister-in-law and I went to see a movie. I hate to admit this, but I hadn't been to a movie in probably over a year. We went to the somewhat new theater in my hometown - very strange for a small town to have eight screens and in the process of adding four more. Growing up we didn't have even one theater in town. Strange indeed. We did the girl thing after the movie - we SHOPPED! Nicki is used to having two little guys in tow, so she enjoyed just browsing and an unhurried pace.

Sunday was a very quiet day - I got my long walk in, worked some more and have been doing the usual catching up things everyone has to do.

I am going to Las Vegas next weekend to celebrate a friends birthday. We'll be gone almost four wonderful days - it'll be good to get outta town, have some fun and do some different things. Meanwhile, I'm trying to find the perfect gift for the person who has EVERYTHING!!! I did manage to scope out some tickets for an interesting VIP performance while we're there. I don't want to let anything out of the bag since my friend reads my blog. You'll just have to wait until I can spill the beans and tell about our wild trip in little over a week.

Until then, get out your glue and have fun!
Joan

Crafty Chica, Birthday Party Cakes, Friends, Odd Creepy Things, Weight Watchers, PBS Preview Party, Walking, Hip Hop, Kindergarten, Weekend Trip, Concerts...

Let's see, did I forget anything that's happened or going to happen soon? Probably...life has been interesting, creepy, fun, rewarding and exhilarating...

Our friend Kathy Cano Murillo AKA Crafty Chica is expected in the office today and I can't wait!Her amazing energy is awesome and I'm excited to see her reaction to a new product line we're working on for her. It will be her first peek at what we've been working on for more than a month.

I'm getting down to the wire on centerpieces for a 50th birthday party my high school class is having next month. It's coming up quick and I still need to paint ceramic bisque in the shape of pieces of cake. When you put 7 of them together in a circle they form a cake - too cute! Everyone gets a 'piece of cake' filled with 70's candies as a favor. More pictures as I progress.

Today is my friend Frances' birthday so I have my party dress on and we're getting together at a local restaurant with her husband and our friend Doug. It feels like I haven't seen her in ages - she lives about 45 minutes away - but that's NO excuse!

Odd Things - I had one of the oddest things happen this weekend - one of those where I'm scratching my head still trying to see what the message is or why it happened - perhaps I'll never know! I went for a walk where I live early Saturday morning. I came back the same way I left. On the way back, I noticed a gold box laying on the ground - it was smashed as if someone had run over it. I picked it up and found a 30 year old diary in it authored by what I'm assuming was a farm wife in a small town about an hour south of here - she was an artist - there were wonderful drawings of people, animals, art displays, the studio she wanted to build. My first thought was to take it to the management office where I live. I sat and thumbed through the entries and read the letters inside - in one letter she talked about death and on the reverse she had her to do list. I felt very odd going through someones private thoughts. Then, I had one of those 'is this really happening?' moments - she mentioned going to a nearby town to get some craft supplies. Well, where she got her craft supplies was at Cheryl Ball's store. I work with Cheryl!!! There were several entries about Cheryl and her mom - the woman used to have Cheryl's mom critique her work. I keep asking myself why in this big huge world did I run across the diary and why Cheryl????

My company offers an in-house Weight Watchers program and we got started again a week ago - I'm very motivated - walking every day and going to a hip hop dance exercise class once a week.

Saturday night I went to the preview of a new PBS program. My friend Gloria knows the host of the show (OK, I have talked with Mark at parties and dinner, so I kind of know him!). It was interesting meeting people of diverse backgrounds. The food was awesome - I was impressed with the mini hamburgers in a 1/4 of a pita pocket.

My youngest nephew started Kindergarten yesterday - seems like he was just born yesterday, but in looking back over all the things we've done, we've both grown a lot.

I'm very excited about the upcoming weekend! A friend, her sister and I are going to a town south of Santa Cruz to shop and play! I've never been there, so I'm looking forward to the adventure and to see what kind of crafty things are available.

This last weekend I picked up tickets for a couple upcoming concerts - Big and Rich (they're a new one for me!) and Peter Frampton and the Doobie Brothers...so, it's concert month in September and birthday party month too!

Until next time - keep craftin'

Joan

Friendship Bracelets

Here's a fun bracelet idea made with Artistic Wire and alphabet beads!

http://www.artisticwire.com/pdf/1042.pdf