Oh what fun we had...

On December 29th my daughter, grandson and I headed off to Maryland to visit The Queen's Ink and participate in a class, Shabby Framed Collage, taught by none other than Jenni Bowlin!

Isn't the project delightful? If you ever have a chance to visit The Queen's Ink don't miss the opportunity. It is a fabulous store with amazing stamps, products and wonderful classes. And I must say I luv all of Jenni's products, soooo I had to do a little shopping as well...lol. Picked up some nice treasures to take home with me.

XOXO

Catherine

And what are you wearing for Christmas...

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

XOXO
Catherine :)

Oh the weather outside is....

Snow, snow and more snow! In case you missed the news, the east coast, in our case Virginia was hit with a major snow storm and we received about 19 inches of the white stuff. Now I live in the Seattle area where we panic if we receive a couple of inces. The whole city shuts down and we are all trapped at home. I have never lived in a place where it has heavy snowfall and this has been a blast. Truly a winter wonderland. It snowed and then it snowed some more.

Our two grandkids, Greyson and Sophia enjoyed the moment.

And Augusto is all bundled up for our walk out around the neighborhood. Look at the snowbank behind him, oh mercy.

And then the necessary work of shoveling out driveways and walkways. Corbin is shoveling like crazy but the snow keeps a fallin...lol

And yes, the obligatory snow fort is made with a wee head peeking out, oh the joy of youth!

My {View} is filled with white fluffy snow today

Catherine

Christmas past...

Look at these sweet felt ornaments from day's gone by. I made these when we were living in San Francisco and our two children were still babies. My husband was putting in long hours at work and so I would sit in front of the fireplace sewing and creating ornaments for our tree. Then about ten years ago I was cleaning out our Christmas ornament box, I believed these treasures were old and needed to be given away, when what to my surprise, my daughter saw them and asked if she could have them for her tree. Thus they were passed on.

We are celebrating Christmas with our daughter and her family this year and when she unpacked the boxes with her family's ornaments out came these "old" handmade felties which now always hang upon her Christmas tree. As I was sitting on the couch watching her hang the ornaments she turned around and held up one of the old felties and said, "Mama remember how you were going to throw these away? Arn't you glad I rescued them?" As I smiled and said yes, my heart was full of Christmas joy. It is indeed the little moments that I cherish.

XOXO

Catherine

December Daily Album: days one, two, three...

For a couple of years now I have been following Ali Edward's project of creating a December Daily Album to capture the 25 days leading to Christmas. This year I am using Carol Wingert's December kit as the base for my album, which I can then alter to make my own :) The beautiful cover is Carol's design...isn't it lovely?

Day One

Day Two

Days Three and Four...day four is tucked inside the envelope

Day Five....let it snow

Day Six...off to Mass to celebrate St Nicholas

The album is a hand sewn and assembled with velvet ribbon book and it is 6" X 9"

I love that on December 26th I have an album finished that chronicles our journey to Christmas.

PS...I took the photos befor adding my journaling, oops.

XOXO

Catherine

It just isn't Christmas without cookies...

One of my favorite parts of Christmas has always been making beautiful homemade cookies to share with family and friends. I am particularly fond of this "old" classic and I hope you will try them this year.

All ready to pop into the oven

My sweet little helper, Sophia, who was the official jam tester as well.

Quality control specialist at work. Greyson is evaluating our team efforts :)

Now where did I put the milk or perhaps the champagne...

Have a wonderful day filled with yummies and as Buddy says (from the movie Elf)

"I thought maybe we could make ginger bread houses, and eat cookie dough, and go ice skating, and maybe even hold hands"

PS...don't forget to visit Jessi's blog so you can see a list of all the Cookie Exchange players and visit their blogs as well. Have fun and don't eat too much along the way :)

XOXO

Catherine

It's beginning to look alot like...

I am playing along with Scrappy Jessi and her third annual cookie exchange. Hope you will drop bye for a yummy visit, December 3

I recently enrolled in Jessica Sprague's class, Holidays in Hand, and am going to attempt to follow the class promts during the busy holiday season. My goal is to stay focused on what is truly of value and important as I prepare for this Christmas season :)

December 1st, let the journey begin.

Catherine

Blessings to you and yours...

May your Thanksgiving holiday be filled with love and joy and perhaps some yummy food as well.
Catherine

The preparations begin...

Cinamon, allspice, cranberries wafting through the house, yes the smell of Thanksgiving is in the air. Pate brise to make for tomorrow's fresh from the oven apple pie and Grandpa's most wonderful apple crisp as well.

Today is preparation day and that means lots of cooking and double checking to make sure all the fresh ingredients are all accounted for.



Gratitude

Today I am grateful for the fact that our first grandson is home with us now from school. And that today is the last day of school for the little ones as well. Family together for that I am truly thankful!

With a little luck Cristina, Corbin and I may be able to sneak out and go to the movies to see New Moon, second on the vampire trilogy. What could be nicer :)

My {View} includes a fresh turkey, apples, and cranberries...oh my

Catherine

Today my focus is on....

In just four days it will be Thanksgiving, one of my favorite holidays. It does not seem have all the stress of Christmas and focus of presents but rather a wonderful focus of "Gratitude" and "Thankfulness"
My plan is to keep a Gratitude List leading up to Thursday. Why don't you join in and let's do it together.

Tis a busy week but I am excited at the prospect of our family, some here, some in Romania sitting down at our respective family tables and enjoying our annual Thanksgiving feast.

Tomorrow thought I would share out traditional foods...

My {View} is full of autumal delights

Catherine

Aprons, aprons, aprons everywhere...

On Friday evening at Silver Bella it was the amazing Vendor Faire, oh la la such finery to purchase. In addition to the faire Teresa also had an apparel theme for the evening, "One Hundred Aprons" where we were asked to wear an apron. It could be handmade, vintage, tres chic, kitchsy or anything you wanted. Today I thought it would be fun to share the aprons my daughter and I wore.. First, on Saturday we had a fabulous luncheon with keynote speaker Jo Packham, Editor in Chief of "Where Women Create" and I lingered after lunch for an opportunity to talk with her and she kindly let me take a photo of us together. Such a beautiful and humble woman! Oh yes, I am wearing an aqua polka dot apron with white anklets with trim and boyfriend jeans, hair is in a ponytail as well. My friend, Debbie said I must also have a daytime apron to wear as well. And so I did!

Now on to Friday evening and my wonderful friend Debbie made this enchanting pink and silver ruffled apron for me to wear. I was attempting to channel "Audrey Hepburn"...LOL

And finally my sweet daughter wearing her own creation an altered apron. She found a vintage German linen nightgown from the 1800's and redesigned it to include wonderful vintage flowers, lace, etc. I know I am her Mama but I thought it was stunning :)

Even as I still bask in the glow of Silver Bella I find I must shift gears and move on to the holiday season. Today will include shopping for Thanksgiving dinner. Can you believe Thanksgiving is next Thursday, oh my, pie to bake, fresh cranberry sauce to make....

My {View}

Catherine

Silver Bella, what a ride

This was my first Silver Bella and what an amazing experience it was! To be surrounded by amazing women artists who "get it" how wonderful is that? I plan to post photos over this week but wanted to do a quick Embroidery Swap follow up... This is my amazing swap partner, Marilee of Rose Brier Studio

Here we are just after we exchanged our embroidery samplers. The one Marilee created for me is simply stunning and reflects so many of the things I love best. This indeed is a treasure.

A fun little snap shot of me with my daughter, Cristina of Sweet Pea Ink

and the fabulous Teresa McFayden the founder of Silver Bella and artiste extraordinaire.

Just arrived home and have caught a silly head cold...too much fun me thinks, lol.

Glad to be home but oh what fun I had....

Catherine

Tis off I am...

Silver Bella here I come!! Woo hoo, it is finally time to go baby. Let the games begin...
Glitter and ribbon and glue oh my, it just makes a girl's head spin. I will take lots of photos and share upon my return :)

In the meantime please forgive my lack of posting as I will not have my laptop with me and will be in classes most of the time. Full report next week, promise!

Catherine

More Bella goodness....Spoiler alert Marilee (don't peek)

I joined an "Embroidery Sampler" swap for Silver Bella. We were assigned a partner, filled out an interest questionnaire, and then went to work creating a 9.5 x 12 sampler to give to our partner at Silver Bella on Friday evening. Oh the excitement... I designed and created a free form sampler with lots of vintage bobbles included.

Little bits of vintage lace, look at the pears, they are from the 1930's. Fun whimsical stitches, pieces of fabric and an old broach.

Beautiful vintage lace panel from the 1920's adorned with a button from the same era. This was such fun and since I have not done any embroidery in awhile I had to knock off a little rust and practice some of the stitches. Was wonderful to get back in the saddle.

I am filled with anticipation and can't wait to give this to my sweet partner, Marilee.

Silver Bella sneak peeks...

I have been working like crazy to get myself ready to head out to Silver Bella

Thought it would be fun to share some of the teacher gifts I have made. These are sweet little candy bar sliders. Each slider is decorated with vintage lovlies and when you pull the ribbon up comes a yummy Seattle chocolate truffle bar.

I need to finish wrapping one last swap and some hostess gifts before I can begin to pack up my tool kit/supplies.

Such wonderfulness awaits. Please come back to visit as I plan to share more of my swaps: fabric book pages and an embroidery sampler.

My {View} is Bella beautiful...

Catherine

Looky here, looky here...

Hey there Jessica Sprague fans, check this out. Miss J is offering a free digital class, woo hoo. Just go over and visit her
I have already signed up and can't wait to see what she is up to. I have taken several of her digi classes and truly enjoy them. xoxo
Catherine

Candy, Goblins and Ghosts, oh my!

So nice when Halloween falls on a Saturday night both for adults and the little "trick or treaters". We are off to a Holloween party at the Port Orchard Yatch club. DJ for dancing, costumes a must...lol and we are to bring Ghoulish appetizers.
I am bringing:
Guacamole Ghoul Eyes
1 ripe medium avocado
1 tablespoon minced jalapeno pepper
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
16 cherry tomatoes
8 pitted black olives, halved horizontally

Mash avocado with fork in medium bowl. Stir in jalapeno, lime juice, and garlic salt.

Cut off top 1/3 of each tomato. With serrated spoon, scoop out seeds; discard. Fill tomatoes with 1 rounded teaspoonful avocado mixture. Center olive half in each tomato to resemble the pupil of an eye.

Our group of friends has decided we are attending the party as a gang of pirates...aaarg mateys! If I am brave enough I will post photos to give you all a little chuckle in your day. :)

My {View}...includes pumpkins, falling leaves, blustery trees swaying in the wind

Catherine

Yesterday and Tomorrow...

Am continuing to enjoy the BPS class taught by Ali Edwards, Yesterday & Tomorrow.

This is part one of my Week Three layout assignment. We were to scrap six childhood memories within a two page format. I have finished my first page. This is turning out to be an amazing class filled with reflection and then the action of putting words to the photos. What fun I have had going through our old photo albums and looking at all the old photos, so many faded as the years have gone by. I am enjoying the simplicity of the layout design. Rather than lots of embellishments and fancy papers these layouts are simple with the focus being the photos + words. This is a project well worth my time and I believe will stand the test of time for my children and grandchildre. I hope they will know a little more about me and single moments from my life.

Enjoy your weekend...
Catherine

Once again

Prima is having a fabuloust give away!! Pop over here and take a peek. Don't you just luv these colors. You know I must admit have not been a fan or orange since the 60's baby but I may have to change my mind after looking these lovlies.

Enjoy your week end and here is hoping you find some orange in your {View}

Catherine

At the last minute I...

signed up for an online class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking taught by one of my favs, Ali Edwards. The class is called Yesterday and Today and the focus will be on me, oh yeah. I shall be making one layout a week and by the end of class will have created 12 layouts. Thought I would share the two I made today, one digital and one paper "the old fashioned way". I am trying to listen to Ali's concepts so am not doing lots of embellishing and deviating from the class formula by choice. Pictures and words.....


I must admit I do so enjoy working with paper, glue and embellisments. I love the feel and the process of putting a page together.Creating digital pages are an entirely different experience, all done on the computer. So many choices for us now a days. Lovin the process...

Catherine

Les belle fleurs...

I am so enjoying the Marie Antoinette Mail Art Group...
My latest swap was to make beautiful flowers out of ribbon, paper, or fabric. I choose to make mine with ribbon. I used Midori silk satin wired ribbon for my flowers. Thes are the flowers I made for the flower swap, they are now all in the mail and I can't wait to see what beauties I shall receive in return. Such a fun...

A delightful blue silver chiffon rose with green satin leaves await her majestyThree pansies composed all in ribbon and attached to another blue ribbon for display.

I wonder if Marie had pansies in her garden at Versailles? I have been fortunate enough to walk the garden at Versaille but do not remember seeing pansies.

""Just living is not enough," said the butterfly. "One must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower.""
Hans Christian Andersen

Catherine

Octobre c'est ici....

October, autumn, beautiful harves colors and, of course, Halloween..

I just participated in a delightful swap with the Marie Antoinette Mail Art Group called, "Royal Treat Bags". We were to each create a bag/box for our partner worthy of Marie filled with Halloween goodies which could then be used to decorate and create for Halloween. We had to stick to a Halloween color palette and so I chose orange, gold and royal purple. Very different for moi.
Take a peek...
Orange and gold Midori paper with Royal purple Midori velvet ribbon and a deep violet pink ribbon in satin as well.
A lovely velvet rose and some rhinestone bling.

The interior of the box was lined with Dupioni silk, gold braiding and velvet flowers. The picture of Marie has been digitally altered to incorporate the Halloween theme...lol. Look at the spider dangling from her hair.

Later in the week I will share photos of the "Treat Bag" I received from my partner, don't forget to check back and see more Halloween treats.

Catherine