More TH 12 Tags of Christmas

A friend and I are still working on our 12 Tags of Christmas, lol, don't want to rush anything! Anyway, I have finished #9 and #12. The last one (#12) was supposed to have a fractured doll on it but I don't really care for 'charlotte'. I was going to put a lampost there or a candle but my friend, Gloria, insisted that I have a charlotte on my tag so I went to the store to get one. HA! I have been to three different stores now and no one has a charlotte, boo! Gloria is going on the Treasure Hunt this coming weekend so she will see if she can find me one. Isn't that always the way it goes, lol! Anyway, here's the tag with out a charlotte. I'll post another picture of it with Charlotte, if and when I find one! I have also done tag #9. It was a bit trickier as I didn't have the background stamp that Tim used on his. I had a tear drop paisley one that looked like it would work pretty good, and it did. I added a few other blingy things to mine as well. They both turned out pretty good. We will be getting together again in the next few weeks to finish some of the others. There are a couple that I didn't like so I will be substituting something else. Will be interesting to see what I can come up with. Until then................. Hugs, ~Jody

The TH Pocket Watch

Since the mirror dangly thing in my old truck was from Wyoming days, pre 2004 (a leather star my daughter made and the State of WY Employee Parking permit) I decided to make a new one for my new truck. I used Tim Holtz's pocket watch and embellished it vintage style. I had a metal bow that was once on a key chain that my sister gave me so I revamped it to include a metal heart and key. I put a thin piece of ribbon around the inside of the watch and then with the tail of it I attached the metal bow, heart, key piece. A while back I found a little metal sign at a garage sale that said 'aged to perfection' and so I attached a brad in the hole and placed a crocheted flower under it. Then added an old button to finish out the look. I found a lace shoestring at that garage sale last weekend too, so I distressed it a bit and looped it through the pocket watch and tied it around my rear view mirror in my new little black truck. Then I found a couple of old necklaces that my mom sent me from one of her estate sales and hung them there with it and it looks so, well, VINTAGEY!! Love it! There was an old crocheted doily in the box of stuff I got at the garage sale last weekend, as well. I washed it and fold it over to cover the little hole in it and put it on the dashboard where there is a little nook, where the clock and stuff reads. It looks so cool! Amazing what you can do with a little imagination. Hope you have a great Sunday! Hugs, ~Jody

A Remodel

Good Morning bloggers, I am doing a remodel of the 'ol blog here so bear with me. I'm not really versed in such things and my daughter is not here to help me anymore so I will have to muddle through myself. Got everything pretty much the way I want it now except for the purple title. I will have to work on that later. Have a few other things to get done today as well, like making a butt pillow, lol. I have this sciatic nerve in my right hip problem and I was noticing a couple of weeks ago that I tend to lean to the right when I am sitting down. A chiropractic friend suggested I change my posture when I am sitting by putting a pillow under one butt cheek. Sounded good to me so I have been trying out all the pillows around my house to see which one will work the best, NADA, they are all too big, I believe. The smallest pillow I own! Sooooo, I will make one just for this occasion. Found a bag of batting in the sewing cubbies and have a tub full of fabric so we'll see what I can come up with. The fact that it did really help the pain in my right thigh has encouraged me. It has thrown everything else off in my back so I had to go for another treatment yesterday at the chiropractor but I think everything is re-aligned now so I will just have to carry around my little pillow.I found a piece of green crushed velvet in my stash so cut a 14 x 10 piece. I sewed a seam down one side and across the top and left the other side open. Gently stuffed the batting in the open side and sewed it shut. Voila', a butt pillow!!! I hope it helps! Have a great day, Hugs, ~Jody

12 Tags of 2012 - Tag#1

Tim Holtz has started a new thing on his blog. Instead of doing the 12 tags of Christmas, he is going to be doing the 12 Tags of 2012, the whole year, one per month. Sounds like a pretty good idea. I did put together a few tags this morning for my closest co-workers and although they are not exactly like the one that he made, I think they will suffice. What do you think? I white embossed the only Happy Valentine's Day stamp I have, down the side. Die cut the heart and the cupid out of different patterned papers I found in my stash. Added some bling and some pearls plus a baubble at the top, which was a silver heart that I had in my stash and a TH pearl attached with one of his pins. I colored some seam binding with the same colors I used on the tags and signed the back of them. I finished all three of them in one hour this morning before I went to work. That's really fast for me, I usually take 2-3 days putting something together, lol! I really think they turned out pretty cute. Hope you had a great Valentine's Day!!! Hugs, ~Jody

Happy Valentine's Day 2012

Hi peeps, have several things I want to share with you today. I have been pretty busy. First off, we had our Valentine's Tea Party last Sunday at the Milk n'Honey Tea Room in Tampa. Everyone was supposed to bring a valentine for each guest, there were to be 15 in all. These are the ones that I came up with... I first embossed the front of each black card with hot pink embossing powder and an old CTMH background stamp. Then I die cut the center out of it with Spellbinders scalloped hearts die. I was able to find some paper in my stash that matched the pink embossing powder almost exactly so I inked the edges of each square and put that on the inside. Then I made some little 'glass' hearts out of shrink film and some UTEE melted in the melting pot. Tim Holtz at his best, lol! I drug mine across a piece of aluminum foil and let them dry on there and it gave this really cool texture on the bottom of them. I then colored them with alcohol inks in three different shades of red. They each turned out differently of course, but each one was so unique, very pretty, and the tea ladies loved them. The table was all decorated with hearts and such and each person had all their Valentine's there as well. There were four different sandwiches, scones and lavender bread and several delicious desserts. We definitely did not go away hungry!!! Then I had to make some sugar cookies for work today, well I didn't have to but I do love me a good sugar cookie, lol and it's rude to eat in front of others so I made a whole batch! I frosted them with light pink frosting and then I cut another heart shape out of the Spellbinders die and some more shrink film, except this time I didn't shrink it, I used it for a template over each cookie and poured red sugar on each one. I think it made about 4 dozen cookies so I had plenty. I took some to my daughter, whom I got to see after the tea party. It had been a while and it was very good to see her. I had to sample a couple while making them of course and I gave a couple to my maintenance man neighbor. They were well received at all places, lol!

Long Time No Post

Yes, bloggers, it has been quite a while since I have been able to post. I have been so busy that at night I just end up crashing on the couch instead of posting about all of it. Let me start off by saying, buying a new vehicle is EXHAUSTING!!! I have been on the hunt for about 6 months now and had not found any body worth working with up until last weekend. I knew a few months back what kind of vehicle I was wanting. I just had to find the right deal with the right salesman for the right vehicle. I finally found all three wrapped in to one, YEAH! I am now the proud new owner of a black 2010 Ford Escape. It is just the perfect little truck for me. I traded in my old '97 Ford Explorer which was a bit bigger than this one is. This one is smaller, not by much, but lots better on gas. It still has cargo room in the back so I can haul 'stuff' around, lol. It rides very smooth and is pretty zippy. Have had to really watch the gas pedal AND the brakes, if you know what I mean. I looked at the Edge but didn't care for the white dials for speedometer and such and it didn't sit up as high as the Escape. The Explorer of course wasn't as good on gas so I decided on the Escape, I think it just perfect, for ME!!! So with out further ado............................................TA DA, here's is my new ride!!! Loving it ALOT!!! The seat adjuster works on the driver's seat, the seat belt works and the wiper fluids work, all three of which did not work any longer in my old green truck. I had to buy a $1 spray bottle at Wal-Mart and fill it with window washer fluid to squirt out the window while driving just so I could clean the window on the driver's side, lol. The other side worked just fine. Why is that always the case, the one you need to work goes out and the other side is just fine, lol!!! Or does that stuff just happen to me??? Anyway, that is a done deal and I am so excited. I had to make another calendar for a friend's birthday that was today so now I can start on some Valentine's Day cards. Have to have 15 for Sunday's tea party and wanted to get some cookies made too. We'll see how much I get done this weekend. Hope ya'll have a great weekend! Hugs, ~Jody