Splendid

New news...

First, scrappy stuff,

Sandy over at The Creative Type asked me to be a Guest Designer this week for the prompt "Lyrics." I just adore her and love her funky humor and so naturally I was thrilled. You should take a peek over there and play along. The gals there are a talented bunch of scrapcrafters! 

All my own Lyrics

    

 Waiting for Spring (so patiently, oh so patiently...) god, I love gnomes!

 

And I just wanted to share these super cute little gifts I got last night over at my friend Ana's house. The girls and I went over to eat Indian from this place that has hands down the best Indian ever! We've heard Indian people say that it's better than most of the restaurants they eat at in India! Agh! The saag paneer, the chicken vindaloo, masala, and homemade naan, the aloo jeera, veggie samosa,and the chutneys, mouth-watering!!! Oh, makes me hungry just thinking about it!  Maybe we'll go there tonight...I truly, truly, truly love it. Next to Mexican, it's most delightful!  Anyhoo, where was I, oh, these cute matroyshka pretties...Ana had just gotten back from Asia doing a buying trip for clothes and textiles for Free People and Urban Outfitters (um...how do I  get a job like that???) Anyhoo, aren't they so cute? She knows I collect matyoshkas and she said he saw all this and had to get them.

little kimono matroyshkas

we're redoing our kitchen in a year and I'm saving these to display then, like Tupperware, only WAY cuter!

 

my own private set of chopsticks!

{and about the Mexico move}Just wanted to let you all know that my hubby and I have decided that I (and my girls of course) are only going to live in Mexico part of the year.  He's going to be traveling a lot for work and we decided after a couple problems with the current apartment we have, to find another...he's found another one, smaller and very Spanish-y Melrose Place-ish. There's a Starbucks literally next door. It's across from a very cool park (Lincoln Park) that has a huge playground and walking trails. The violence everyone's seeing on the news hasn't reached Mexico City, it's more up along the border towns. Yet, in light of Dave's new traveling schedule, the current violence happening with the Mexican government and the drug cartels, our homeschooling life, our house in Philadelphia (blah, blah, blah), we'll be staying here.  We'll go down to Mexico every few months for a month, then back up here.  My husband will travel home every couple weeks (not ideal, but he'll be traveling anyways...) I'm not too terribly upset, of course I'll miss him, but we love it here.  And staying 4-5 months out of the year there will be good, we'll spend the winters there, escaping Philly cold...and I'm sure a month here and there throughout the year.  Like a nice vacation 4-5 times a year,eh? We already have booked our Thanksgiving trip here. The Maya Tulum resort looks magical!  5 days and nights, sandy white beaches, massages, margaritas, yummy food, yoga,..awwww...so happy!!! Our friends Ana (and fam) and Kristal (and fam) are joining us, too!

 

Looks luscious, huh? Can't wait!

Hope you're having a great week!

I'm Lucky...

"I'm Lucky" is the next Category Stories prompt, please come play along with us! I am never without my camera it seems, but I didn't have any pictures lately that made me feel they were "I'm Lucky-ish" so I thought and I thought...then I thought I'd use the embroidered family portrait from the rva class a couple weeks ago.  But because it was another project I felt it was cheating a little in some strange way.  Then I kept thinking, "lucky...lucky...lucky..." and then I thought randomly about my sweet husband who travels a lot away from home.  I thought I'm lucky to have him, but I didn't have a recent picture of us...then I thought about how he's been so good to me over the years, how hard he works to support his family, how he's such a good dad, friend, hard-worker, easy-going, generous, then I went back to lucky, lucky...and I thought about he's coming home soon, how I've missed him, lucky, lucky...lucky...he'll be home soon, agh yes! Maybe for this LUCKY prompt, I'm {getting} lucky- so the sweet little panties with the embroidered pin-up girl and the lucky 4 leaf clover of the backside would be a little present for my lucky husband when he comes home next time...lucky him!!! Hey, we've been together 14 years people!

 

  the 4 leaf clover on the back

And I'm lucky to have been chosen by the most superb Martha on Sis catwalk for my family portrait project, what a surprise! Thanks Martha! Isn't she too cute???

And I'm lucky to be able to make fun crafts such as this funky eyeglass case from the rva class.

 

and finally, I'm lucky to have such sweetheart daughters that busy themselves building fairy homes in our yard while mommy is sick on the couch with stomach flu all day Wednesday...

Hope you're feeling {getting} lucky, too!

  

Girl love...

I was so pleasantly surprised at the warmer weather here this weekend.  Such stark contrasts to the frigid temperatures earlier in last week.  I did some "light" spring cleaning (which means hardly at all) and cleaned up some yard debris, scrapped a little. The girls played outside all day Saturday and Sunday with neighbor kids, building a fort, playing explorer and drawing with colored chalk on the sidewalk. I wore a dress without my over the knee socks and had the windows open, yay for spring-ish weather!

Here's my Creative Type prompt, using a stitched title..."Girls Night Out" with the Dozen's kit.

  

 

and my two blog pals sent me these...so sweet...

First, my super duper girlfriend pal Sarah here in the Philadelphia area, sent me a tag challenge to pick the 6th picture in the sixth picture folder on my computer. Here's mine...

  Little sis in the subway in Washington DC,2 years ago. Don't you love that pixie do?  She had everyone call her "punk rock Ava" for a couple months.

And I just wanted to share a couple photos of my wonderful friend Sarah who performed last Friday night at First Friday.  Her new band played at a Starbucks and she sang, drummed, played keyboards and hoola hooped for the crowds. She's got an amazing voice and her a LED hoop fit right in with the eclectic crowd gathering around to listen to her band's music.  It's always been a bit of a dream of hers to sing in a band, and now she's doing it. I'm really proud of her! 

   

And second,my super sweet friend in the Netherlands, Vivian, gave me this...

  Thanks Viv!!! 

Lastly, my bf Lainie is in Chicago right now meeting her biological dad and his family. She was adopted when she was only a day old and never knew who her mom or dad were until a few months ago.  She met her biological mom a few months ago and has developed a sincere friendship with her and her mother's family. Then she was put in contact with her dad.  I am so proud of her for being so open-minded and brave meeting them.  She has told me some wonderful stories about their last 2 days together and I am just so happy for her, and them, because she's a pretty fabulous gal, I'm glad they got to meet her, too.

I couldn't think of a good title for this post, but with all this girl stuff in here, (the layout, Sarah, Viv, Lainie, etc.), I'm feeling the girl love...

so ready for warmer weather...

While I truly enjoy all 4 seasons, I must admit I'm rather growing tired of the bitter cold here in Philadelphia. I wouldn't say I'm the most outdoorsy gal in town, but I do like to go for nice walks and sit out under a tree once and awhile...

the high yesterday was 22 degrees...my windshield wipers froze to my car on Monday and would not work until I had the defrost on for 20 minutes and finally MANUALLY moved them, I mean, c'mon here...but the cold weather does help me hunker down (love that phrase) and get some crafting done I guess...and the last few days, here I've been...hutled by the heater (secret: late at night I've been watching reruns of this, shhhhhh...so embarrassing, so trashy, so fun!) Here's 2 of the few projects in the works over here...

the RVA class has been so cool.  I've thoroughly enjoyed it...my embroidery picture, the latest project from Rachel, fun!

and my "I'm Lucky" family portrait, getting ready for St. Pat's Day.  It's my next Category Stories project, so shhhhh...don't tell anyone...Dave's portrait makes me laugh a little, I can't tell if I think he looks like the Uni-bomber or not...and do you see his arm with the tattoos? He's actually much more tatted up than that, but I didn't know if I should add more and it would look even stranger than it does...

 

and on the homeschool front, another wonderful class at the Morgan Log House.  We take monthly classes there for our little group, each time another lesson on early American colonial life. A new aspect of colonial life is discussed, another tour of the house with a theme in mind, and a craft related to that theme is done. This time it was on light; candles, sunlight, firelight, etc. We had a scavenger hunt through the house to point out all types of light sources.  The kids loved it. Then we learned about using a flint to start a fire and made punched tin window designs. Both girls made cats.  Pretty stinkin' cute!

 me helping little sis with her tin punching project, and below big sis doing her project. There's the Flat Sandy from her pen pal in the UK in the picture...

 

And we've been studying Mexico for the last 2 weeks for geography and social studies, the girls finished it off with a sugar skull project.  We bought these kits from Hearthsong, and they were pretty good. Both the girls are really into Mexican culture; sugar skulls, Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead dolls) or La Catrina dolls are a hit with them.

 

our royal icing was a little runny, wouldn't you say??? Very Jackson Pollock, eh? 

Oh, and I won the challenge this week over at Scrap Mojo with my for the Love of Vintage page.  I consider it a great honor because all the studly gals who entered the contest are so talented and did AWESOME layouts! And to be picked by the mojo gals, fab-u-lous! All of them are dreamy!

Have a super weekend!    

In like a lion...

This week has been a craft jamboree over here.  I am trying to complete my projects for Category Stories before we move (although, once again, my husband's visa/FM3 has been messed up by the powers that be...I feel like at this point I'll never move...) Check out the new prompt over at Category Stories the beginning of March, it's a fun one.

"Precious Things" is the first prompt for March... come on over and play!!!We have awesome Nut and Bee prizes!!!!

 

and here and here, I couldn't resist these fun challenges... 

this challenge, using the prompt, "For the Love..."  I said, For the Love of Vintage,

  

and this challenge on this wonderful site...using lace in a project, not hard... a pin cushion in an egg cup...

and finally, trying to keep up with the laundry, school and other "wifey" duties has been hard with this lovely class...the RVA  girls have made the last two weeks full of crafty goodness!

My felt tee-pees have been a hit in the girls little fairie village (the one on the left has a bit of a gangsta lean...) even Cricket is making a cute one.... 
and my vintage doilies table-runner, so fun to make. I used buttons with embroidery floss and hand sewed them together. Two of them are my Granny's.

 

There are a lot of other projects I'm behind on, plus I'm done with Twilight, starting on New Moon.  Hard to choose what to do next, make dinner, craft or read???