Feast or Famine...I know...

I know...

I don't blog for weeks and then here I am, twice in a day! Not many words, of course, but thought as long as I was editing/uploading pics from tonight I'd throw them here on the blog, too!

Here's my two Snow Princesses....

And my baseball player (refused to wear a costume with any type of hood or hat so we resorted to this...which he LOVED so it was worth it!) who can lob the ball surprisingly well, especially hopped up on Halloween Candy!Me with Her Royal Highness #1

Her Royal Highness #2 with one of my sweet sisters, Whitney...

Trick or Treat!
Beautiful girl!
Setting out for trick-or-treating in our neighborhood....
These moments of sweetness happen so infrequently that you just have to STAGE THEM sometimes!

My sister, Whitney, the 4th girl in our family, and I!

Hope you had a fun Halloween! This means Silver Bella is that much closer. I can hardly believe that TWO WEEKS FROM NOW is the Bella Faire. Holy Moley. So off I go...doing the next thing!

A Cupcake Break

Oh Sweets...it is INSANE here...sick kids, Silver Bella preparations, getting ready for Halloween stuff and oh so much more!

But I have to take a little cupcake break to show you the "half-dozen" special order I did for a very sweet Miss Amy Ockert who many of you recognize as Bunny Rose Cottage. What a DOLL Amy is! I am so enjoying getting to know her. She is so sweet, kind, totally adorable and though you'd never know it by looking at her, the mother of five little boys! She is redecorating her kitchen in yummy pinks and aquas. So fun, right? I hope she shows piccys of this delicious kitchen as she goes along. ;)

Have fun tonight, Everyone! We've got two very excited Snow Princesses and a Baseball Player who is uncannily good at throwing his ball at your head.

HUGS!

Sweet Stuff

Wow! Thank you for all the amazing comments on my last post! You know how to make a girl feel good! :)

I am hard at work on the things I'm taking to Silver Bella for vendor night. OH my gosh...I am having so much fun, Sweets! It is coming together quite nicely.

I don't want to show everything, of course, but I have to show you a few "hints." Much of this creating and getting ready happens late at night and there is often a yummy glass of wine involved...like this lovely glass of Zinfandel...

and can you guess what this is?

I have my whole counter set up as a "mock vendor table" and today I realized (gadzooks!), I am not going to have enough room for everything I've made! So I am going to offer something to YOU, today, that I don't have room to take with me to Silver Bella!

It's actually a fabric-covered, sturdy and sweet "craft box" that would be perfect for a Silver Bella atendee, or any creative gal, for that matter! It's about 13"x 11" and 6" deep , zips up, has handles, as well as a fabulous divided tray inside, perfect for storing the bits and bobs we all love to use in our creating.

And I couldn't help myself....I decided to stock the box with some of my own favorite bits and bobs, some of which I will be selling at Silver Bella!

Here is what the box looks like:

Side zipper...

You can see I've embroidered the lid with the same sweet vintage embroidery pattern that you saw on one of the pages in Rosanna's book. An appropriate design for this box, don't you think?

And here's what you'll find inside...

A miniature "prom gown," so appropriate for Silver Bella! I may just be making something with one just like this myself! ;)

One of my yummy cupcake pin cushions, complete with pink pins! You can also see a fabulous satin ribbon rose (about 3" across) and some tiny vintage millinery roses.

A couple of "fat quarters" of yummy Paris Bebe prints we sell...

Some more yummy fabric, pink lace and ballerina cupcake toppers!
and pretty little bits and bobs...




with room for lots more! This sweetie is listed HERE. Shipping is usually free for items in my shoppe but this box is pretty hefty so I'm going to ship it to the new owner for $12 (that big Priority Mail box).

I also wanted to show you some pics from this past weekend. There was a fun family-reunion on James' mom's side of the family and everyone gathered at the park. The kids were thrilled to discover a little "stream" nearby. I saw an unmoving, tepid little body of nasty water but the kids saw fairyland, of course!

We live in Central California, so it is still warm and the leaves are very reluctantly beginning to change.

My guys...aren't they handsome? My girls... this might be one of my favorite pics of them of all time!

Raychie and her sweet cousin...

Raychie not so happy... or "grumpy-dumpy," as we say in our family...

Happier....

Andrew - on the move. It's hard to get a photo of him NOT in motion these days! I love the expression on his face in this shot. So typical of him.

Sweet + Mischief+Adorable+All Boy = Andrew

And here's a cute shot, also from this past weekend, of Andrew and his Auntie Laura (my baby sister)....

Well that's it! That only took all day! Blogger was giving me fits, Mr. Andrew was not so happy and...well LIFE was going on! Hope you have a good evening....

Hugs,

Cheryl

The Sweetest Things

Hello there, Sweets!

Hope you are having a great day. I sure am...I heard from my customer and new friend, Rosanna, that the book I made for her daughter arrived safely and that she loves it! Yay! So now I get to show YOU, too!

I had heard OF Rosanna before this job but had never worked with her myself. I saw her INCREDIBLE kitchen, full of so many art pieces by so many artists that I admire, on Jenny Heid's blog back before I even started blogging. Rosanna is a collector, as well as a patroness to the arts, and has made a name for herself both here in the U.S., as well as in her home, Italy. So when I heard she was interested in my making a fabric heirloom book for her, I was THRILLED, to say the least!

What a treat it has been working with Rosanna! She and I have very similar tastes so it was so easy for us to work together in making this book exactly the way she wanted it. She picked out most of the fabric and gave me some very loose guidelines (cupcakes, yummy, pink, aqua, ballet) and from there, I got to run with it. So much fun.

This book is my second in the new style that I am now addicted to: using both fabric AND paper pages in one book. It makes for a really practical book...Rosanna can put photos on the paper pages, tuck sweet things into the fabric pockets and when Rosanna's daughter opens it, she may do some journaling of her own.

So here it is!

"The Sweetest Things"

The first page is one of my favorite pages. I used an incredible drawing by my talented artist friend, Donna Gotlib, to make this embroidery pattern. I love how everything "pops" when it is 3-D and I tried to make as many elements as possible have as much dimension as I could. The bullion knot curls were incredibly tedious but so worth it! This is one of the drawings that Donna and I are basing one of the embroidery patterns we'll be creating and selling on. It's called "Dreaming on a Cupcake." Here is her giclee print of this drawing....so cute! You really MUST check out all Donna's drawings in her shoppe HERE, as well as her charming blog HERE. You will love her, too!

The next spread is a "cupcake princess" theme...probably the most eclectic of the pages. "Princess" is spelled out in rhinestones, there are child-size full-length gloves in the pocket and the "My Little Cupcake" fabric was one of Rosanna's favorite prints.

The sweet and very pretty little birthday girl herself!

This page is in the yummy cupcake print that I can't get enough of. The tiny organza bag of crocheted cupcakes is sewn on, though I can't claim to have crocheted the little sweeties! I bought them on etsy from pukashell. Aren't they delicious? The cupcake charm is vintage.

First paper page with room for photos.

Yummy cupcake picks from Sugar Sugar.
Another fun page with library pockets (from Sugar Sugar) filled with blank tags for writing memories, gifts she recieved or even fixing photos to.
This is a super-sweet page, don't you think?? :)

Appliqued cupcakes on a long pocket.

Another yummy page! The little three-dimensional cake is actually a hair clip I clipped to the pocket. I bought the hair clip from a charming etsy seller, goldilocksbarrettes. .

Rosanna's daughter loves Aurora... Another paper spread for journaling and fixing photos... Another paper page with a sweet saying and two vintage paper doll dresses.A whimsical "Doll" page. The two tags (from fleamarketstudio on etsy) are sewn to the page. I'm a little bit addicted to her tags. The page is in a sweet nostalgic paper-doll print that I am selling on my website.


The dear little graphics on this spread are from my good friend, Pat, who is summersdarling on eBay and they were originally a charming little children's book.
Another fabric page with a pocket. I machine-stitched an actual paper doll dress to the fabric pocket...my first time trying this. I really like the effect.
Starting with this page, the next section is ballet-themed since Rosanna's daughter is an accomplished little ballet dancer. A paper spread..."happy" flashcard from onehundredwishes, ballerina from a vintage birthday card I cut up and a vintage crown broach.

This spread is my very favorite. Hence all the photos of it! ;) and when I found this vintage embroidery pattern in my stash, I knew it was perfect. The skirt in lace was one of Rosanna's suggestions before she knew/saw this page. The 3-D effect is so much fun and this page was my daughter's favorite.

The last "spread" features a yummy floral print I am in love with (and I have it for sale on my website), a vintage embroidery pattern that I accomplished in matching colors and a charming doll dress that I sewed right to the page.

And this is the last page. The lace is a pocket and there is a tiny snap hidden under the ribbon and rhinestones.
And that's it!

My seven-year-old daughter and my four-year-old daughter have started asking me for a fabric book of their own, which I thought was a good sign that Rosanna's daughter will enjoy it. :) I plan to take some time off after the holidays and actually work on some books for my own girlies.

Hope you have a lovely day!

Cheryl