Today is going to be fun. I have my ATC group coming over for a couple of hours to visit and do a show and tell. We love sitting out on my deck and visiting. Our house is so much in the top of the trees that it feels like a vacation. I also ordered some Godiva Key Lime candy to share with them. I have tried to get the Key Lime candies the last 2 years and messed up the order. These certain candies only come out at a this spring/summer time of the year so they are not always available. I ate one the other day when they arrived and boy are they strong. The Key Lime creme is covered in dark chocolate. A friend told me about Stewart's Key Lime soda so I bought a bottle to share. I am giving everyone a shot of the soda in a shot glass. This will be a very limey green day.

We are all waiting for the heat. It feels like we are down in San Francisco where the breeze is cool off the ocean. It is great for Joe's lettuce and onions and peas. I have been working on a little paper doll that was sent out to everyone in the summer swap, it is to be photographed out and about on my summer adventures. I finished her last night and took this picture of her this morning in the flowers we still need to get planted. I am also working on a Georgia O'Keefe ATC. Since I taught a Georgia class to my students I have wanted to draw a skull picture of my own.

Lettuce Bee

Last night we ate our first lettuce from Joe's garden. The lettuce was so tender and sweet. Joe had planted a french mix of lettuce. (That's what the package said) He has had some troubles with the Robins eating his carrot seed and the weather is so crazy. This morning it was 38 degrees. I have a couple of art projects going but nothing done. I am working on a Town little album. It was started by others with very few pages, I am adding on to flesh the album out. I found an old music album cover to use as the cover of the book. It is a cover for Mexican music and it has a giant sun on it. I am also working on my ATC's for my group swap this month and the theme is Boys of Summer. I am using a similar design to one I saw in a September/Oct. 2007 "Cloth*Paper*Scissors" magazine swap of recipe cards. I am making a Willie Mays ATC. I used to watch him play every Wednesday on ladies day at Candlestick Park when I was a kid. My mom loved baseball and the park was pretty close to where I grew up. We had our bag of peanuts and some water and spent the day in the sun by third base. Then I married a baseball player. I sat through many summer days and nights watching my husband play fast-pitch softball. He was always a fabulous ball player and he has many trophies to show it. I also tried to play softball when I was 27 years old and it was a disaster. I rounded up my friends, started a team and joined a league. I could run and throw great, I just couldn't hit the ball with people watching me. I really suffered the summer I was on that team. I used to hear my friends in the dugout talking about how they dreaded me getting up to bat, funny thing was, I was the one that started a team so we could have some fun. LOL... A little 'B ball" and summer lettuce brings back fond memories.

Alice is Out and About

What an amazing ATC group I belong to. This past month we made Frida Kahlo ATC's and she inspired everyone to create beautiful Frida's. This month we took rubber stamps with us to Starbucks and while we drank and talked we also stamped to our hearts content. I really wanted Judith to bring her Alice in Wonderland stamps so I could make a few projects with them. I came home and found a beautiful postcard someone had sent me and I could see Alice in the garden. This Alice theme came from the March -April, Somerset Studio mag. I already am thinking of what to do with the Queen of Hearts.

Challenge "Boo to You"

Third challenge.

I saw these little skeletons on the cover of CPS=cloth paper scissors, Sept/Oct 2009 edition. When I first saw the cover I really wasn't interested in the project ,even though the skeletons were cute, I didn't see myself making them because they were sewn and used felt. Then a couple of days ago I started thinking I had felt stashed some where and I love to embroider so I changed my mind and rounded up my old black felt and thread. I used the cover picture and copied it on my printer for a pattern. I have made these skeletons for some of my friends.

Tea for Three and Tea for Four

Saturday was our 5th Annual Progressive Tea Party. What a great day. We started off at Jan's house and her theme this year was Fantasy Trains. We had wonderful stuffed little red Potatoes, Stuffed cherry tomatoes, and artichoke Quiche, last but not least we had little sour cream tarts with apple. YUM.
We progressed to my house and my theme was Garden Forest, I served tomato Bisque soup for starters and watermelon and feta cheese salad with Balsamic vinegar. Then we had your typical cucumber sandwiches, chicken salad wrapped in lettuce and pumpkin bread sani's. I also served a glass of champagne mixed with ginger ale.
Colleen's house was decorated with her grandma's treasures. She started off her tea with the most wonderful rice pudding, then beautiful apricot-almond scones, last was our delicious shortbread.
The day started out perfect and ended perfect. Next year we may change the tea to something different. My mom's motor abilities are slowing going and it is harder for her to get around. We shall see.

Spring into Action

Today I had such an inspiration. I have decided to work through my Cloth-Paper-Scissors and Somerset Magazines. I have been collecting the magazines for a couple of years now and they each have around 20 projects in them. I will do a project every couple of days or maybe everyday, depending on the skill level and time involved. This way I will use new techniques and products. So far I have started making Glamour Girl ATC"s and Pamela Patterson Reinhardt lettering ATC's. The Glamour Girls are on-going and for when I get inspired by the day, holiday or weather, maybe even a book I'm reading or movie I have seen. The lettering I did on five ATC's for the people in my ATC group. I started out the lettering just to see if I could do it and decided to make an ATC for my friend Jan. That way I had a project to do the lettering on. Then after I finished the three letters of her name I thought I should do the first letter of my other ATC friends.
My glamour girls came about because of some Kelly Lish drawings I saw in Somerset Magazine at the time I went to the movies and saw "Alice in Wonderland". I call my ATC "The Wrong Alice", which is a line from the movie. What a fun movie and a fun thing to do some projects around. I know I will be doing more Alice in Wonderland projects because my friend bought the stamp set and is going to share them with the ATC group.