She's Sew Pretty

A New Week

Whew!  I think I have recovered from the weekend.  I did nothing but lay around and read yesterday.  I finished a good mystery, The Genius by Jesse Kellerman.  It was very, very good.  A bit twisted. Jesse is the son of one of my favorite authors, Jonathan Kellerman.  I will have to look for Jesse's other books.
The wedding was beautiful.   It was outdoors.  It was 102°.  I thought the groom and his attendants might pass out.  No one succumbed to the heat.  The wedding went off without a glitch.  The bride glistened.  The groom beamed.  Our table at the reception was next to the water and a nice breeze came up.  We could hear the catfish jumping out of the water behind us.  That was interesting.
My daughter and son-in-law hosted a nice birthday party for my son on Sunday.  My son was thoroughly spoiled by all of us.
Talk about willpower.  I managed to pass up wedding cake and birthday cake all in the matter of two days.  I think I deserve a medal or something. ;o) To my family who have had to put up with my crankiness because I passed up all that yumminess.  Mea culpa!
In other news, Suzical added me to her Big List of Sewing Blogs.  I am honored to be on the list with some  wonderful sewing blogs.  Sew...that means I need to get my sewing machine back out and sew something.  I've been working on some Christmas items for Christmas in July at Etsy.  Mary Engelbreit has a really cute Christmas fabric line out.  I bought enough for pincushions and a runner for my dining room table.  I'll show you soon.
Now, another apology.  Two people tagged me lately.  I'm getting old and forgetful and I can't remember who it was.  So, if it was you, please let me know.  I promise I wasn't just avoiding you!!
See you all Friday, when I show you my Christmas in July projects.

Pink Saturday-Show and Tell Sunday!

We have a full weekend planned.  Our activities run the gamut too.  We have a funeral for a friend of my husband on Saturday morning, one of my oldest son's friends is getting married Saturday evening and my youngest son has his 16th birthday party on Sunday.  From sorrow to happiness on Saturday.  I think "terrified" is the label for Sunday.  I don't even want to think about my youngest son being of "driving age".
So tonight, I thought I would combine my Pink Saturday with Show and Tell Sunday.
What's in the big Pink box?
Paper. Piles and piles of paper.  Old magazines, sheet music, song books, ledgers, old advertisements and vintage greeting cards.  I have more boxes of paper, but this is the big Pink Box.  Perfect for Beverly's Pink Saturdays. Cerri is hosting Show and Tell Sunday and it is all about vintage ephemera.
Let's take a peek inside the box. Right on top is a  coloring book from 1923.  I love the illustrations! 
  An old western poster for my future retro 40's cowboy theme family room.
Old magazines from the early 1900's.
Sheet music to frame some day. Old song books and papers for collage. Greeting cards, lots and lots of vintage greeting cards.  I pulled out some predominantly pink cards.
And one last bit of pink, a pretty pink pincushion on a vintage lace advertisement.
For closer looks at some of my ephemera go visit my Flickr.  I have some of it downloaded there.
I'll be around to visit everyone's blog on Sunday night.  I'm looking forward to seeing how you store your paper. Thank you Cerri and Beverly for being such sweet hostesses this weekend!

What's Making You Happy Wednesday?

Here's what is making me happy today.
The sun and heat haven't totally killed my garden.
I finally hung the mug rack in my laundry room.  Seeing my aprons makes laundry a little more fun. How cute are these?

Working on Christmas in July.
Etsy Sellers!
Clockwise from top left: Coconut Cake Pin Topper from Pinks & Needles, You're A Sweetie card from Susie Scott Studios,  fun fabric charm pack from Jen Duncan,  Boudoir Tin from Cape Cod Cupboard
So, what's making you happy today?

Pink Saturday

I'm joining Beverly's Pink Saturdays today.  I love pink! Here's some of my newest estate sale tea cups and a sweet pink little girl planter.  And pink buttons.  Who could pass up pink buttons.  All laid out on my favorite Barefoot Roses by Grand Revival fabric.  Did I mention I love Pink?!

TGIF

  It's still hot so I just keep sewing and sewing.  I like the way these pincushions turned out much better. The one on the left has a "Mary Engelbreit'ish" look to me.  I love Mary Engelbreit.  I hear that she will be a speaker at Silver Bella.  I would love to go.  Do they give scholarships? ;o)
Gayle, Lynn and Fitty all were sweet enough to pass this award along to me.


I always feel like the captain choosing teams for baseball when it comes to these awards.  Every single one of you on my sidebar is there because I think you're Brillante!  So, I would give it to all of you if I could.

The rules for receiving this award are:

1) Put the logo on your blog

2) Add a link to the person who awarded you.

3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4) Add links to those blogs on yours.

5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

So here goes.  Amy, Blondie, Phyllis, Sherri, Rosa,  Miss Paula and Analise.  You're all on my team.  Now, let's go kick some blog bootie.

*Please forgive the different font sizes.  Typepad is driving me nuts.  Every time I try to change the font size it changes one word at a time.  Since I don't want to be here all day......

Baby, It's Hot Outside!

Oh my gosh!  Do you see the high temperature here in Clovis today?  113°!!  The air quality is awful too.  This morning when I took my son to summer school, the horizon looked like brown fog.  Nasty.  We stay inside in this weather.  My garden takes twice daily watering which I do in a hurry.  At least I have an excuse to do nothing but sit and sew.  I made a scrub top for this man.  He bears a slight resemblance to my hubby.  My hubby has a beautiful blond beard that I love.  I want him back.  If you see him, tell him his wife is looking for him.  He says the beard will come back when the weather cools off.  I figure maybe around November.  Yikes!
I found this plaid rose pillow at my favorite gift shop for two bucks.  No label.  I hope they don't mind that I bought it to use as a  pattern.  I was trying to make a pincushion size rose.  What do you think?  I think I should have used two coordinating fabrics and not used one of my roses for the center. If it wasn't so late, I'd start over.  I'll try again tomorrow. Constructive criticism is encouraged! Of course, if you like it, feel free to say so.

Baseball, Hot Dogs, Key Lime Pie and the U.S.A.

Wow!  What a busy weekend!  We started the fourth at my daughter's house for a barbecue.  Fresh veggies, barbecued hot dogs and for dessert my daughter made a really, really good sugar free key lime dessert.  Maybe she'll share the recipe soon.  My youngest son and my hubby are fireworks fanatics.  They sneak out together and buy bags and bags of fireworks.  Words are whispered furtively behind me about barrels and towers. I try to ignore all of that money going up in smoke and let them do their thing.  They set up the show and we watch inserting cheers at the best fireworks.  I don't think this was one of them. This one looks like a scene from Ghostbusters.
The fifth of July, the hubby and I had a hot date to go to the Fresno Grizzlie's baseball game.   Good looking men in white, tight pants and baseball!  My idea of a perfect date!   We won the game 4-1.  There was a big fireworks show after the game too. I remembered my camera about half way through the fireworks. I should have remembered my camera at the beginning of the game when the umpire and the Grizzlie's manager got into an argument; the manager was ejected from the game and was so mad he took second base with him.  Drama!
In between baseball and fireworks, I managed to make a few more rose pins and list them in my Etsy.  I thought they would be cute on a memo board.  This one is in my mom's room.  I bought some wedding favor boxes for packaging them and they're all ready to be shipped.  Wouldn't they make cute favors for a bridal shower?

Happy 4th of July!

My patriotic heart beats red, white, and blue.  ~Author Unknown

My "Art"?

I was given this Arte Y Pico award from Steph at Angelic Accents and Blondie at Vintage Primitives.  Blondie actually gave it to me twice.  Shhh...I think she forgot and I have been feeling guilty about not posting about it.  Thank you so much Steph and Blondie. They are both so deserving of this award.
Here are the rules:

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name of and link to the blog that presented her/him with the award.
4. The award winner and one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte de Pico"
blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5. To show these rules.
Now for the hardest part for me. Choose 5 other people for this award...

1. Pinkie at Pink Pomegranates.  Her crowns are gorgeous!
2. Gayle at Sparkle Jars who makes beautiful quilts!
3. Calamity Kim who is an amazing eclectic artist with a needle!
4. Julie at Pink Paris Match who is an amazing artist and photographer!
5.  My daughter at My Best Friend Calls Me Martha for the amazing art she makes with a crochet hook.

 Funny thing is, I always wanted to be an artist when I was a teenager.  Then came jobs and babies and well, life.  One day not too too long ago, my youngest son asked me when I was going to paint again.  He said he remembered when I used to be an artist.  Seems like years ago.  So now instead I play with clay; my sewing machine is my easel and my spools and spools of thread- my paint. 
This is my art. Many of you have asked about my eyes.  I've had some residual damage with flashing lights in my side vision, etc.  I have to wear big, funky, old lady sunglasses outside. I've always been a little vain about my "green eyes" and hate covering them up.  See where vanity gets you!  Despite all that, my vision seems to be almost back to normal "for me".  While my eyes were healing, I did a lot of nothing.  Books, television, and the computer gave me headaches.  So I made things in my head.  These pins were one of my ideas.  I finally sat down to make them this weekend and I love how they turned out.   I wrapped clay around corsage pins.  I bought a bunch of vintage lace at a rummage sale and dyed it pink. I decided to wind some around cards and secure it with a rose pin.  They're in my Etsy shop.  Now,  I need to figure out a way to package the pins so I can mail them safely one at a time. Any ideas?
So life is moving on.  My ex-husband had a double heart bypass.  It remains to be seen if his surgery will be a "wake-up call" and he will reestablish a relationship with his children.  As for me, I'm taking one day at a time and  being thankful for the blessings in my life.  Eyes to see, hands to  feel, hearts to love!

A Fanciful Party

Have you heard?!  Vanessa's having a party!    Vanessa said tea but I see these girls have hit the bottle already!   As for me, I've been dieting for weeks to get into my costume!  Everything looks so yummy!!

Maybe just one bite! If my corset pops I can always hide behind my parasol.

A word to the wise though.  Watch out for that Mr. Lovee.  I hear he's a fast one!!