Tim Holtz and Fred the Flamingo

CHA Chicago

Fred and I are just back from CHA and we had a great time. We saw lots of great stuff!  Over the next few days I will be posting lost of photos of the great time we had. I wanted to show ya'll this one first, though. Of course Tim Holtz was there doing lots of demos on the new products that he released from Sizzix. Lots of great dies! I think my fave would be the Paper Rosette Strip Die - you should go check it out.

Anyway, as Fred and I were making our way around the floor checking out the stuff, we had to stop and get our pic taken with Tim. If you have never seen Tim do a demo or had the chance to talk to him, he is SUPER nice. Of course, the lights at a trade show are WONDERFULLY flattering so everyone looks great in the photos they take there :( 
 And, of course, I saw a ton of stuff that I couldn't live without in the booth! My absolute faves are these simply beautiful ribbons. I will have to have one in every color. I cannot wait to have them. If I could have figured out a way to steal them of the wall while I was there I would have. :) 
Are those rosette ribbons the cutest thing you have ever seen? Now, pretty much every one at the show who had ribbon had a rosette ribbon. But these were the BEST in my opinion. For one they were the perfect size - the rosettes, were just about a half inch, so I am thinking they will be great on a page, a card or a project. Second - they were attached to a WIDER piece of netting, so they will be easy to SEW down on something. Perfect right? I didn't find these in Tim's catalog, so I am not sure what line they are from. 
Be sure to stop back by, as I will be posting more new items and photos that we saw. There were so many new, cool things. I also have the projects that I made in classes from Prima and others.
Have a great day!

For the Love of Gussie

Well, I have been absent for some time now. I have spent most of the last year at the nursing home taking care of my grandmother, My Gussie as I call her. She went into the nursing home last August 15th, and she passed away July 10, 2010. She was the delight of my life. I have been her part time caretaker for the last ten years - helping with her DR's appointments, medicines, grocery shopping, house cleaning, whatever she needed. This last year was stressful for me (I also work 45 - 50 hours a week) but it was also a labor of love. It has literally consumed me - I spent part of everyday at the nursing home. These last four months have been particularly tiring. She had not been eating well, and would only eat if my Aunt or myself went to feed her. So we went everyday and coaxed a stubborn 94 year old woman to eat. 

I also have not had much time to create. As you can imagine, I am behind on EVERYTHING! My house, my yard, my life, all of it needs some TLC these days :) I have taken some time in the last two weeks to sit and create - the stress release is much needed.   I have been dabbling this last year with gallery wrapped canvas, and different ways to decorate it and include it in my scrappy world. I created this piece night before last to display an old photograph of Gussie. 

The photo has to be copied and printed, so I don't have it yet (territorial relatives!). But is is a beauty - it was taken in 1930, and it shows my Gussie sitting on the back bumper of a car, Aunt Coodge's car to be exact, with her silk stockings on and her crinoline petticoat. She is smiling so coyly at the camera and holding a little bunch of wildflowers that were picked from the side of the road. It is one of my all time favorite photos of her. 

This canvas is 8X8 and I have painted it with acrylics, stamped it, covered it with Prima papers and distressed it with liquid acrylics. The flowers are Prima's, of course, the ribbon is May Arts and Offray. The metal findings are out of the jar, so there is no telling where they are from! I have used stickles on the flowers for a little extra sparkle. The sparkly pebble is from Webster's Pages (LOVE those things!).


I hope to get another post up tomorrow night, I just made the cutest little book for my daughter Heather for her spring break trip to the Grand Canyon. I am off to Chicago to the CHA on Tuesday - way before dawn -so I need to get to bed early tomorrow night, but I doubt that is going to happen.  :)
Thanks for stopping by - Anita