5th Annual Black Hat Society Tea Party

Yesterday we had our monthly tea party. It was at Kathy's Milk n'Honey Tea Room in Tampa. There were 10 in attendance including myself and we had a great time. The food was very good and the company even better. What a great group of gals. We even got to see Hazel again. She hasn't been around for over a year, so it was good to see her. Everyone wore their black hats, there were some pretty spectacular ones there. Here's a photo of us all. This was a self portrait kinda of thing, and where we had to set the camera didn't leave much space for us to all stand and have our hats on at the same time. Most of the hats were witches hats so they stood up and covered most of the lovely faces, lol, so some took theirs off. We had lots of goodies, like half heart and eye balls skewers and mummy wrapped scones, cat/pumpkin oreo cookies and some bloody finger things, don't remember what she called those. And the table was set to perfectly match everything else. It was all very lovely, had a great time! Hope you had a lovely Halloween weekend as well!!! Hugs, ~Jody

Having a Wicked Halloween.........................

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! Hello bloggers, just popping in to show you the cards/tags I made to give to the tea ladies at the Halloween Tea Party today. I cut the tags with my Expression and the ABC Plantin' Schoolbook cartridge at 3 1/4". Was able to get three out of an 8 x 11 sheet of cardstock. The witchy-poo was embossed with black and the stamp is from Close to My Heart set #S1108 Wicked, as is the swirls down the side. The swirls are stamped with Tim Holtz's new Seedless Preserves distress ink, LOVE THIS NEW COLOR!!! Had a bit of a time getting hold of the new seasonal series ink pads but determination prevailed, lol! I knew I wanted to use them on these tags so had to have them SOON! They are delicious colors, can't wait to see what colors he has in his Christmas series. They should be coming out soon! Anyway, back to the tag, I green embossed the "wicked halloween" stamp on purple cardstock and then cut it out with Spellbinders Labels Fourteen. It was a bit big so I moved it up a little bit and cut the bottom of it off. Worked perfectly!! Then punched a hole through it and the tag and added a black brad. The purple sign sways on the tag so I added a "boo" underneath, cuz you know someone is going to look under there, LOL!!! The little glitter pieces: spiders, pumpkins, cats and boos I got at Walmart a couple of weeks ago in their halloween section for a buck a pack. There were 40 pieces in each package, half of each one, What a Deal! Can't wait to get them to the party, speaking of which I'd better get a move on or I'll miss the party. Hope you have a great weekend!! Happy All Hallow's Eve everyone!!! Hugs, ~Jody

Panel #4 and the finished product

Good Evening bloggers. I have finally finished the fourth and last panel of my Halloween Door Decor. I just love how it turned out. It even fit perfectly across the front of my door. This fourth panel depicts a "haunted house" theme. The house is, of course, Tim Holtz's and the background paper is his too. The pumpkin was a button, the skeleton was an earring I found in a .50 bin at an antique festival I went to yesterday. The shiny black cat was a Wal-mart find, came with some orange 'boo's, 20 of each in the same pack for $1. The exclamation point I made with the other letters on my cricut and the token with the memo pen is TH. The purple 'scary' was in my stash from years gone by. Here's the whole thing put together and hanging on my front door. It fit there so perfectly. Now I can look at it each time I come home. You can click on the photo and it will get bigger. That way you can see all the different dimensions. I found a little skeleton bracelet at either Joann's or Michael's so I took it apart and added a skeleton face to my shelf. Thought he looked pretty good up there. I actually had some black flowers that I was going to put in a pot outside the little house , still might. Hope you enjoy my little halloween treasure. I'm sure it will adorn my front door for a long time. Happy Halloween!!! Hugs, ~Jody

Panel #3

Good Evening bloggers. I have finished Panel #3 of the Halloween 'door decor'. This one predicts 'a spooky night'. A couple of TH embellishments and his tree, of course, some Michael's $1 ribbon and some purple glitter. The moon is a Spellbinders circle and the 'spooky night' is a stamp that I embossed with green embossing powder. Sure made up cute. Am getting excited to get it done so I can put it on my door. The cat and the black bat were buttons I had in my stash from last year. I just snipped the little thingy off the back. I gave the cat some glowing green eyes and the bat some orange ones. Pretty cool hugh!!! On to the last one, can hardly wait! Hope you have a great evening! Hugs, ~Jody

Craft Room Rennovations

Have been doing a bit of rennovating in my craft room over the weekend. I had this computer armoir in here on the west wall. It's nice with lots of storage but the monitor always seemed like it was setting in a tunnel in the dark, or I was looking down a tunnel in the dark, or something like that, lol! Anyway, I was tired of it so I unloaded it and took it out. I had to put plastic lids under the corners to even get it to budge, it weighs a ton. I did manage to get it out of the room and down the hall way and out in to the living room by myself. Took me about a half hour, lol! All last week, Michael's had their white cube storage thingy's, can't remember the name of them, on sale for 50% off. One day they even had an additional 20% off sale items so I loaded up on the storage cubes. I ended up with eight. I put them all together, a couple each night and when the weekend rolled around and I got that armoir out of here, I placed all the cubes as I thought I would like them and then I measured the top. I went to Home Depot and bought a piece of plywood and had them cut it to the exact dimensions. Took it home, sanded it a bit, painted it white and put a couple of coats of polyurethane on it and stuck it over the top. It turned out pretty cool. Now for the shelves!!! I had them cut the extra wood into shelving and I will hang that above the desk, hopefully on both sides. I love how it opened up the room quite a bit and looks so much brighter with white against white walls. Now I can add my own splash of color. Hope you have a great day, Hugs, ~Jody

How about...............

I have to tell you this funny story. I was driving to work this morning like I do every morning down this long stretch of road that has recently become a construction zone, uuuggghhhhhhh, and the signs say will be for the next 2 years, UUUUGGGHHHHHHHH! Anyway, I was following this person, don't know if it was a man or a woman driving, but it was a burgundy colored mid size car. On the back of the vehicle was this bumper sticker at about trunk level and it said......... how about a nice cup of shut the f___ up!!! OMG, I laughed so hard. Some people think I'm such a hard ass but let me tell ya, I have nothin' on the person that owns THAT car. I took a picture of it with my superior Wal-mart track phone and sent it to my home email address but guess what ??? it didn't make the trip. Not sure where it ended up but I certainly hope I don't know the person who received it. LOL Not sure you could have read it anyway, the light was awful, etc. So, ya, that was my funny start to my day! The sun was shining, the music was good and it turned out to be a terrific day. Hope yours was just as enjoyable! Hugs, ~Jody

God's Creations

Look what I found growing in my backyard yesterday? I got a slip of this plant from an old friend a year or so ago. He said to just put it in a pot with some dirt and leave it where it can get some sun and rain water and forget about it. Well that's exactly what I did. I have moved it from the last place I lived and moved it around my backyard a couple of times making way for other plants and such but when I went out yesterday morning to do a little gardening there it was in all it's glory. Isn't it beautiful!! I don't even know what kind of plant it is but it sure is pretty. I hope it gets some more blooms on it. Hope you have a great day, Hugs, ~Jody

September Tea Party

We had our tea party for the month yesterday and was alot of fun. We went to the Milk n'Honey Tea Room on Busch Blvd. in Tampa. One of our tea ladies actually owns this tea room so she was glad to see us all come to her place. She hasn't been able to go to our monthly teas as much since she purchased the tea room, she has had to work on those Saturdays at her own tea room, lol! Anyway, we had some delightful sandwiches. And the scones were Pina Colata And the desserts were delictable!! Kathy, the tea room owner, (top left) has a little dress up room in the back for the kids and lots of hats hanging on the walls so we each chose a hat to wear and had a group picture taken. My daughter is a waitress there and she was the one taking the pictures and she was talking to me while she was taking the pictures so the look on my face is kinda funny but it was a fun picture, lol!!! We had a great time!

Newest Creation

Good Evening Bloggers! I took a little break from the Halloween banner this weekend and made a really cool necklace and earring set. I needed something to do while I sat in front of the TV and watched all the 9/11 shows over the weekend. I did take time out for a football game in which the Steelers got spanked but this is what I came up with. I purchased this pendant and the four smaller pieces at Michael's in Rockledge, I think, while I was over there for Christmas last year. They were on the clearance rack so I got them for a song and they are PURPLE, well sorta lavender anyway, my favorite color. I have hem-hawed around all year trying to find just the right color combinations to go with it and finally settled on some that I already had. I did find a couple other beads at Michael's the other day that kinda matched so I mixed them all together and VOILA'. It turned out way pretty, I think. A bit to fancy to wear to work probably but it will work nicely for the next tea party, doncha think? Here's a couple of close-ups so you can get the full picture. I am very pleased with the outcome and can't wait to wear it. I have a cream colored dress that it will go nicely with and the tea party for September is next weekend, I better get that baby dry cleaned tomorrow!!! Hope you have a great evening, Hugs, ~Jody

09.11.01 ten years later 09.11.11

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Hugs and Prayers going out to all those directly affected by the events of that dreadful day. We will never forget!