Lovely Gardens

 

Garden Tour of Cayucos

Such a pleasure seeing these wonderful gardens, many with succulents which thrive on the Central Coast of California

 Makes we want to sit for a spell....

 My parents were both rural mail carriers so I happen to have an affection for different mailboxes.  

 Check out this clear mailbox - love it!

Another example of living in a beach town...a surf mural on your garage door!

Prince William & Kate

Wow!  Was I honored when my friend, Kathy, brought me this tin full of yummy cookies all the way from England by way of Virginia.  It commemorates the marriage of Prince William of Wales & Miss Catherine Middleton on April 29th, 2011.  Love it!  Thanks, friend!

Make Healthy Fun! Workshop

 

What an awesome workshop at the Morro Bay Library!  I was under-the-weather so I recruited some helpers I knew would do a great job and I hear they did!!!  Thanks to my sister-in-law, Nicki, my bro, David and 9-year-old nephew, Brandon who made a fun morning for kids and adult alike making marbles (all you need is some cornstarch or white bread, glue and paint) and creating a container garden complete with beans seeds to get the kids going on growing their very own garden.  Check out workshops and other ideas to get the entire family to unplug, exercise and eat healthy at www.MakeHealthyFun.blogspot.com and www.MakeHealthyFun.com

Transfer Your Child's Drawings on to T-shirts

 















Don't file away those great drawings your child creates, scan them into your computer, print them on Wilton T-shirt Transfers, iron them on and in a few short seconds you have a unique way to 'display' and preserve a masterpiece. 

My nephew, Brandon, was here this summer and created some great drawings.  School starts for him this week so I created one-of-a-kind t-shirts for his first week of school.  Remember those days?  New clothes, new shoes, even new underwear...

Stores are having amazing sales on t-shirts right now, grab a few, stop at your local fabric or craft store for some t-shirt transfers and be ready for school!

BTW - if you've used iron-on transfers years ago, try them again - they've improved DRASTICALLY!!!

Happy Crafting!
Joan

Make Healthy Fun! FREE Workshop

Come join the fun!

Describe Yourself

I recently took a PR class and part of an assignment was to come up with three words / things / people, etc. to describe yourself - it's harder than you think...  When you're a person who's been involved in the creative industry for years (and years) and have worn many hats it's kind of hard to come up with just three.  I came up with

Martha Stewart (I love to plan parties and make daily life special - but I'm cheap...) meets Honey I Shrunk the Kids (I love shrink plastic!) meets Marlo Thomas (I currently have a little flip in my hair that I've never tried before!).

How about you?  What three words / things describe you?

Check back every Thursday to see what crazy thing I'm sharing - it might be a new craft, a new trend, a new shrink plastic project (I have zillions of ideas!!!) or inexpensive ways to throw a party...

Until next Thursday, the Martha in me is planning a dinner party, the 'Shrunk' part of me is working on an amazing shrink plastic garden idea and Marlo needs to go make sure that flip is just right...

Enjoy your week!
Joan

Visions of Home

The last couple of weeks have been very emotional.  My sister-in-law's dad passed away unexpectedly at the young age of 61. A friend of the family created some amazing floral arrangements made with dried roses for the memorial service.  George was an avid guitar player and taught my fifteen-year-old nephew how to play and he bravely accompanied a photo montage at the service.  My hat is off to you, Justin, for an amazing tribute to your grandfather.  He would be very proud.








 George was a corrections officers and the friend did an amazing job replicating the symbol.  I was so very touched by the number of people who came to pay their respects - they stopped counting attendees at 650.  George was a wonderful man who will be missed by all who knew him.

While I was 'home' for the memorial service I took a little trip around the family farm.  My family's barn is really cool - we've had fun Thanksgiving dinners in there, we used to park our tractor in there and zillions of years ago, cows were fed inside.  Love the country living...(or at least visiting)











 Sunflowers near the barn.

 My 9-year-old nephew came over for a few days and we 'played' all kinds of things.  He LOVES the military and EVERY time he comes for a visit I get to go to the army surplus store!  He was so excited to try out his $8 tent.  He slept in it and I didn't sleep that night because every time he rolled over the plastic rustled.
 

 Brandon did lots of painting and sometimes it wasn't on paper or canvas...

I had some old canvases in my garage and now Brandon LOVES using them.  He created eight different paintings.  He's taking a Picasso style painting class in a couple of weeks and tried his hand at it at my house.

I made sure Brandon signed and dated each painting - a reminder to all of us that when we finish our masterpiece we must sign and date it!

Space Shuttle Astronaut Cake

Commemorate the last space shuttle launch with a cake that's sure to blast off into history!

Space Shuttle Astronaut Cake

What You Need

• Shrink plastic* or recycle clear plastic containers from the grocery store (look for #6 on the bottom of the container)
• Baking sheet
• Baby powder
• Oven or toaster oven
• Scissors
• Hot pad
• Permanent pens
• Aleene’s® Jewel-It™ glue
• Brown cake with mound of white frosting (see photo)

*Aleene’s® Shrink-It™ is available in clear or opake through www.Amazon.com or use #6 plastic (check out to-go and berry containers- check the bottom for the number 6 surrounded by the arrows)

Creating with Shrink Plastic

Welcome to the fun and exciting world of shrink plastic!  Shrink plastic starts out thin and when heated in a household oven, shrinks about 60% to the thickness of a nickel.  Available in clear which starts clear and remains clear when shrunk or opake which starts translucent and shrinks to a pearl-white finish.

To Make Astronaut Shrink Plastic Decorations

1. Place patterns under shrink plastic. Trace using permanent pen.
2. Cut out using household scissors.
3. Preheat oven to 275-300 degrees. Lightly sprinkle baking sheet with baby powder and place plastic pieces on baking sheet. Place in oven. When flat, remove from oven with hot pad and let cool. 
4. Color pieces using photo as a guide. Let dry.
5. Write name on cloud using permanent marker.
6. Glue shuttle support stick to back of shuttle, astronaut support sticks to back of astronauts and glue cloud to back of astronaut’s hands. Let dry.
7. Insert all pieces into cake.

                                                                   

Enlarge patterns to fit on 8-1/2 x 11 paper - trace one astronaut and flip pattern over and trace one more. Trace three support sticks.

 Directions to make the Happy Birthday Susie cake are available at http://stores.lulu.com/craftproductsatyahoodotcom

Web Design

I DID IT!!!

Whoooosh...I just completed a very intense six-week web design class AND I got a 100% on my final!!!

Now, to catch-up on my Craft Chica PR class - I hope there's no a final!

Lemoore High School - 110th Anniversary

Celebrating 

110 years of excellence!!!

There literally will be dancing in the streets tomorrow night in the city of Lemoore.  The small farming town, where I attended high school, will be celebrating 110 years of existence. 

The festivities start this afternoon when my high school friend and I hit the local ice cream place and then tonight about forty of my classmates will be partying at a local restaurant.  Tomorrow night the streets of Lemoore will be closed down and they're saying up to 5,000 people will be attending. Four different bands, food, hugs...I have three generations attending and my great aunt was in the first graduating class of four. 

Then Sunday, it's a picnic and I just found out that I'll be staying Sunday night because I got a voiceover gig in Fresno the next morning.  To add to the fun, my 9-year-old nephew is coming back with me and we're going to squeeze in a little fun, do a little yardwork in prep for his dad to come over later in the week to hopefully finish-up my front yard.  Meanwhile, I'm behind in my web design class (my final is July 8th!!!) and I'm behind in my Crafty Chica PR class...I have to play catchup next week after all the fun this weekend!

I'm going to be seeing a lot of purple and gold this weekend...Go tigers!!!

The Ankle Saga

Today was an interesting day...it was day four of therapy on my ankle and I can say I have now done many things I have never done before.  Today was walking on the treadmill in a harness - they wanted to take pressure off my ankle so I was strapped in to a harness in so many ways.  I've done a couple of intense ziplines and those harnesses were nothing like this harness.  They took 25 pounds 'off of me' and while I was walking I didn't feel it, but when they took the harness off I felt EVERY 25 of those pounds.  After that, I was 'taped up' to see if it would stabilize my ankle - never done that before either. Then they sent me on a search for a lace-up ankle brace and three places later I finally found one. After all that torture I didn't even get a foot massage (I did get iced which feels awesome).

Therapy is done for this week but I have a huge test this weekend when I have a big social event where I'll be walking and standing for hours.  I scheduled therapy for Monday morning...maybe I'll get a foot massage if I've been good. 

Be sure to take care of yourself and watch it when you're going down stairs!

Aleene's Mini Reunion

Last night was if time had stood still.  We had a mini Aleene's reunion and for some it had been years and years since they'd seen each other. 

There was Beth, the floor director of the Aleene's Creative Living television show (she kept our taping schedule on track - we usually taped 8-12 segments Monday through Friday), Tiffany Windsor, host of the show, Heidi Borchers, designer extraordinaire, Sharon Williamson took over from me as the instruction writer when I went on to be the editor of Aleene's Creative Living magazine, Lori was the producer making sure once the segments were taped that they were edited and ready for airing on television and Jean was a segment producer doing all the before, during and after handling of the people who appeared on the show.

It was great reminiscing, catching up and planning for upcoming reunions.

To think a bottle of glue started it all...

Happy 60th Anniversary 

to my parents 

We're celebrating this weekend in an unusual way - I'll post photos after our family adventure on Saturday!

Jump Rings or Links?

Web Design Class vs. Crafting

I'm more than halfway through a six-week web design class and today one of the things I'm studying is a jump link - I know my way around a jump ring but a jump link?  Back to studying! 

Unplugged

I was unplugged today - but not by my choice!  I knew my day wasn't starting off right when I turned on my computer and it came up that I had a virus...and then other yucky things started to happen on the screen.  Thank goodness I have a repair guy a couple of blocks away and he fixed me up, but it took all day!

Strangely, since I wasn't plugged in (BTW, I accidentally unhooked my phone too when I unhooked my computer so it was a real quiet day!) I got lots done.  I worked in my garage and got tons done (I'd started yesterday) and I worked on a PR class I'm taking by The Crafty Chica.  She's so inspiring.  I'd better get caught up on emails and homework - yikes!  I have website design homework too.  Little time, at the moment, for hands-on creativity!

I think I'll unplug more often (by my choice) - it was a more peaceful day...

Celebrate Good Times

I was looking through the archives of the Aleene's Creative Living television show and ran across the Birthday Banner Quilt Pattern I presented on the show and thought I'd 'bring it back'.  The pattern is perfect for someone who would love to make a quilt for the first time or for someone with quilting experience. The name 'panels' have velcro on the back so you can change them out for everyone's birthday. Check out the SHOPPING section on my blog for more info about the pattern - www.ExpressYourCreativity.blogspot.com

Here's a later version I made for my sister's family - she surprised me last year when she brought it to my house when we were celebrating my nephews birthday.  This version was more 'crafty' with 3D paint for the lettering instead of sewing the letters.

Learn to Quilt

Have you ever wanted to learn to quilt?  The Family Tree Quilted Wall Hanging pattern is the perfect beginner's quilt project and it's inexpensive too.  The pattern comes complete with a list of the materials you'll need, a color photo of the finished project, full-size patterns and easy to understand instructions.  Quilting is great fun and this pattern makes it super easy to create a family heirloom for your family or as a gift.  Click on SHOPPING!!! over to the right for more details.

It's that time of year again...

Grab your cameras and be on the look-out for the perfect photo op to submit to the Costco International Photo Contest 2011.  I'll be thinking about it all summer long in hopes of finding that 'best shot'.  Best of luck!

Memorial Day

Memorial Day Weekend and My Birthday Weekend usually fall at the same time and when my mom suggested I come 'home' for my birthday I 'requested' three things that I wanted to do.  Remember, this was my first big trip out since I broke my ankle two months ago (tomorrow).   This weekend would be filled with 'tests'...first, a two-hour car ride, then on to my 'requests'.  We had lunch at Ethel Red's (a new restaurant in my hometown of Lemoore - I have it reserved for a class reunion next month and wanted to try out the food) - yummy hamburger, then it was on to visit Hobby Lobby!!!  - another test of walking around the store...did pretty good.  Next was Superior Dairy in Hanford - I broke away from my usual chocolate chip milkshake with a banana chopped up in it.  This time I chose a banana split - yummers...An added adventure we kept for today - my poor ankle needed a rest was to go to the Armona cemetery.  It is such a beautiful sight with hundreds of American flags blowing in the breeze.  It was the oddest weather - I had to wear a jacket in May...weird!!!  Both sides of my family go back generations in the area so we also went to the cemetery in Hanford and Lemoore.  I took lots of pictures of where to find the family plots. 

 

Check out the cute butterfly cake my sister, Nancy, made for me!!!  The frosting was almond and vanilla flavor with coconut sprinkled over it!  I'm spoiled!

This is a view from my parent's yard (where I grew up) toward the Coast Range Mountains.  Wehad rain last night - surprise!

Memorial Day

As we observe this Memorial Day, please remember our soldiers who were lost to their families and friends for our freedom.  To those who have lost someone near and dear to their hearts, my heart goes out to you as you remember their smiles and their love. 

Pink, Pink and More Pink

What do you think about pink?  I keep seeing it everywhere and I'm hearing that it is the latest hot color. It was time for a little blog spruce-up, so pink is it!

j

Web Design Class

I started an on-line web design class this week and I'm pretty excited.  I remember taking an HTML class many, many years ago and it didn't gel, as a matter of fact it didn't do anything for me except upset me.  So, I was quite surprised a few months back when I decided to take a web design class at the local university after having a couple of clients (yup, I'm a freelance writer) ask if I knew a web designer.  I thought for a couple of hundred bucks and a couple of Saturdays I would see if it was something I wanted to pursue.  I was quite surprised when it actually made sense this time.  That spurred me on to take this on-line six week class.  I'm through the first five chapters and missed one on my quiz so we'll see how it evolves. 

So, even if something, be it a craft or something technical, didn't work out for you the first time, give it another chance.  Who knows where it might lead... 

Craftingly and webingly yours,
Joan

And the boot stands alone...

It's been six weeks and I FINALLY got the go ahead from my ortho specialist to take off the boot that's been my constant companion 24/7 for those six weeks. I still can't make myself go down the stairs in my home where I fell but one day soon I will! It's amazing how one mis-step can totally change your life. I know my daily life has changed when my printer is flashing this message at me - "the ink is nearing its expiration date" - I've NEVER seen that message before (and probably never will again) - I think I'll print something...

So, now I'm limping around without the help of my crutches and feel every muscle in my leg that hasn't been used in six weeks.

and, no more crutches!!! I just received the bill for those (after insurance $87)...a friend suggested I put them up on Craigslist and try to sell them. I'm seeing them out in my garden as a plant support AND that darned boot is going to be planted with, I think, strawberries and go out on my deck...

Here's to a speedy recovery - thanks for all the well wishes.

Joan

Welcome Spring!

I love where I get my hair done - every time I go in they've changed the decor - last time it was hundreds of coffee filters fanned out across a wall. This is just tissue paper clipped to clothesline pieces with clothespins...