Anniversary Trip

We got away to the middle of nowhere.  Actually we stayed at Sorensen's Resort in Beautiful Hope Valley, CA.  No cable, no internet, no TV.  And almost unchanged from the time the first settlers came out West.  I have heard if you fly over the area you can still see the wagon ruts from the early wagon trains moving west over The Emigrant Trail.  So many animals and wagon wheels rolled over that the ground and it is so compressed nothing grows in those ruts.

Back to our stay. There are 35 cabins at Sorensen's nestled in the woods among the Whispering Aspen.  So peaceful and beautiful. The first night there a group of us from different cabins had a huge bonfire and ate S'more and talked into the night.

One night we had a Marmot on the steps.

 The property was so gorgeous and these two topiaries where sitting by the pond fishing.  There where others climbing trees.  Really cute. And all made by a local artist.

One day we drove over to Lake Tahoe.  Beautiful day but the wind was howling at 35 MPH with whitecaps on the water. The next  day we went to Genoa, Nevada.  It is the oldest settlement in Nevada.  While there I checked out all the Antiques Shops.  Something I love to do. In one of the shops I found this 100 year old ladies writing desk.  I fell in love instantly and best of all it was marked down half price.  I found my Anniversary present.  I just love it and adore the 8 little claw feet.

So I moved our luggage around in the SUV, in it went and came home with me. Thank you hubby for the great Anniversary gift.

For right now I am going to use it for my sewing table.  May later I will use it in the center of the room for a desk because the backside is as beautiful and the front.

Trick or Treat Banner

Here is the new Halloween banner I just completed.  I purchased a fabric panel online at Fabric.com.  It looked really cool when it arrived.  So I got busy.  First I ironed the panel, then bonded it to a plain piece black cotton fabric for the backing.  Next I cut each flag out. 

 I thought it look too plain so I took them all to the sewing machine and stitched a fancy border around each one. The two end pieces with the sculls I decided to use a stitch that reminded me of Skull and Crossbones.  On the remaining flags I stitched a feather type stitch.  Still too plain. 

 So off to my craft table and with a little Tim Holtz Distress ink I added some dirt and age with black.  Gives it a sooty look. Next I used my hot glue gun to add a few skulls, bats, and orange rhinestones.  Well, now it needed color.  Right? So off to my stash for some orange and black fibers, orange ribbon and a little orange netting trim. Finally I used my punch to make a hole in each corner and strung each flag on  brown twine. I ended up putting just a dab of hot glue in the center back of each flag on the banner to keep it from sliding along the twine. 

I love the way it turned out.  It's almost October so time to get the Halloween decorations out of the garage and figure out which one I want to use this year.

Colors of Fall Earrings

Looking forward to crackling fires, hot chocolate and falling leaves.

Time to get  Fall clothes ready in rich browns oranges and other earth tones.  Here are a few pair of earrings I made for the season.

Love to go to craft shows and this next weekend is the beginning of the season in my area.  And then we will make plans to go to Apple Hill.  Every fall the apple orchards all open for selling fruit and more craft shows.

Witches Hat Painting.

Here's a witches hat I painted for Halloween. It is about 11" x !6".   I used acrylic paint.  Thought I needed something bright for my wall this year.

Hope everybody had a good weekend.  Looks like we have a cloudy sky tonight for the lunar eclipse. Bummer.  

Halloween Book Of Spells

Well,  the calendar may say it is Fall.  But it is already 91*.  I am so ready for some cooler weather and hopefully the end to our terrible drought.  We need rain so badly.  The whole state of California is  either turning brown or catching on fire.  Heard on the news that our over 2,000 year old Sequoia trees are in danger of dying if rain doesn't arrive soon and bring a good snow pack this year.

But back to crafting.  This is my Halloween "Book of Spells."

I used a very large old dictionary.  First I took a hammer to the edges and corners to give it an aged appearance.   I used Tim Hotlz Black Distress Ink on the edge of the pages.  Next I printed out the words Book of Spells in a font that I thought looked old and spooky.  I tore around the edges and glued that to the front of the book, traced over the lettering with hot glue from my fine tip glue gun.

Cover

Next I tore a sheet of white card stock, glued it around the words, ruffling and curling the edges to make it look like the book cover was peeling to reveal the spell book title.  Probably would have been easier to use black but that is all I had at the time. Along the bottom I hot glued on a piece of lace.  Next I painted the entire book flat black using an acrylic paint .  The mirrored wand is just and vintage spoon I flattened and glued a small beveled edge mirror to.  Then aged the mirror with alcohol inks. I cut a spider web with a Martha Stewart punch by the spoon and around the dragon's eye. For the dragon's eye I made a little paper window and glued an image of a dragon's eye that I printed off Google Images under the window. Then used Glossy Accents to make the eye shiny.  On the front and back edges I glued an old leather watch band that you unbuckle to open the book.  And covered the end of the band on the front with a tiny vintage doily and canvas button.  When everything was dry I used my finger to highlight all the raised areas with Antique gold Rub and Buff.  

Have this sitting on my coffee among the faux fall foliage.  Makes a neat conversation piece.

Mirrored Wand

Dragon's Eye

Closure

                         

Spine of Book

Hope you are having fun getting ready for Fall.

Quilted Scarecrow

Time to fill the house with thoughts of fall.  This guy is about 4 feet tall and he hangs on a door.  He is stitched from a fabric panel cut apart filled with light fiber fill.  I stitched over some of the lines to give him a quilted look. I then added a couple of bows and some golden red yarn fibers for his hair.  He makes me smile every time I pass that door.

Hair Detail

Halloween Configuration Box

Fall is in the air and my thoughts turn to Halloween Crafts.  Here a configuration box I recently completed using a single sheet of Graphic 45 Rare Oddities paper.  I added dyed cheese cloth for webs, handmade flowers and little bottles filled with different spices to resemble medicines. Coated all the shiny stuff in the background with Glossy Accents and a few orange rhinestones and a couple of peacock feathers.  Lots of little odds and ends from my stash where used throughout.  The glow that you see between the boxes was created using single strands of peacock feathers glued along the seams.

Detail view of bottles

Top View

Both Sides

Back View

This is the beginning of my blog where I hope to share crafting ideas with others.