I Went to a Garden Party

So a couple of weeks ago, I had an opportunity to go to a Garden Party hosted by Joanne, a member of my Art Group.  I'm trying to down size my craft selection at the antique mall, so I decided to put together some art kits to share as favors.  It was great, it meant emptying out about 8 jars of crafties, like keys, buckles, drink parasols, assorted cardboard letters from games, some majong tiles, and the like.

Joanne always sets a beautiful table … in fact all the ladies in this group are naturals at entertaining.  I loved that she used my favors in the place

settings. 

I also loved her patriotic rag swags.  In fact I made one for my garden house … I can't wait to be done with it and be ready for a reveal of its make over.  It was definitely time.

Here are Cindy, Jann and Ann …

and Margo, Kimi, Trina and Joanne … somehow I missed Shirley … but she is in the group shots below.

How fun is Joanne's sweet child's cupboard … yep, I had to exercise restraint in the coveting department.

Joanne's yard is so full of whimsical fun, I wish the light would have allowed me to share the fun.

Here we are; Kimi, Cindy, Jann, Joanne, Ann, Shirley, Trina, Margo and me.

 Its been a cool summer here, and by the end of the evening a few of us where snuggling up.

After we brought in some of the accoutrements, I decided to take a better shot of Joanne's crafted candlesticks. We all loved them and are now collecting small glass objects … that's right, it never ends.

Thanks Joanne for the wonderful Mid-Summer's Night Dream of an evening.  Everything was perfect!!

Making Patriotic Wreaths at Art Group!

Well, its officially summer, and for me that means patriotic décor.  How about you?  It also means that our June art group were making red, white and blue wreaths.  Kimi set up this space, and gifted us goodies too.

That's me getting on my patriotic Jam!!  I used this old round wire Christmas card stand to build my double sided wreath. You may see my patriotic campaign buttons scattered over the wreath on both sides.

Shirley is soooo talented.  She brought patriotic goodness to share as well.  Her work is always stunning, you'll see her finished wreath below.

We were glad when Connie, Kimi's good friend, dropped by, because we only had 3 of our 10 members at this group meeting … I like to think of the three of us as the hard core crafters.  We are the ones who dream about crafting at night.

Here's our Shirley getting in her patriotic artist garb, she's almost done.

Here's Kimi peeking through her finished wreath. Be sure to note her adorable patriotic ballerina!

Here's the other side of my wreath … please note the pipe cleaner Uncle Sams that Shirley made for us.

Here's Shirley's completed project.

Yep, there's all the girls, in their Charlie's Angels Pose.

We had a great time, and got to immerse our selves in creating art, which makes art group a high light of the month for me.  Thanks for sharing your vintage goodness girls.

Bee-you-tiful Festival of Trees for PCMC

So back from Finland for 9 months, we had missed doing a tree for The Festival of Trees, a fundraiser for our local Children's Hospital, for two years.  It was good to get back in the saddle. 

 Here is the entire set up.  The skirt of the tree was made from half a dozen dollar store tutus.

We decided on a Bee tree theme in June.  We registered the name, Bee You Tiful with the Festival then.  Two months later my son died in an gun accident while camping, and our We Can group chair, Carolyn, kindly agreed to dedicate the tree to him.  At that time we added the 'B' s for 'Ben' to the design.

These are the ornaments our group made in monthly meetings for three months. There were 8 to 12 ladies at the meetings.  I finished up the ornaments the weekend before Festival set up, which is always the Monday after Thanksgiving.

The ornament to the right is my favorite of the group.  Ladies spent a lot of time making these hives out of sculpy clay.

 A larger B, and a large Bee top the tree ...

 Along with the tree, we added a small pie safe, rocking chair and table.  The contents of the pie safe were donated by various people, some items were donated by members of We Can, some came from a customer at the antique mall where I work, some came out of my stock at the antique mall, still others came from friend of mine,  my daughter Becca, a successful realtor in the area, purchased and donated the rug and the Bee Skep in the lower left corner was made by me with my craft group. So much goodness came together to stock the cupboard.  

The hand embroidered dish towel set, and a sampler were hand stitched by Carolyn, our group leader.

 Here are the We Can ladies who were able to come to the set up day.

 I loved the fun the bee wings, I got at the dollar store at Halloween time, added to the tree.  Best bang for our buck.

This is our dedication to Ben.  We miss him so much, but the focus on this tree, where I worked, and sometimes cried over my crafting, really was a healing experience.  We have done 18 trees over the years, this is the third one to be dedicated to someone.  My first was dedicated to my mother in 1999, then in 2013 we dedicated our tree to a member of We Can, who passed away.

Thank  you for joining us in our journey.