Thrifty Miss Priss

On My way to Silver Bella

So.  Imagine my shock when I checked my e-ticket on Saturday.  The e-ticket thats getting me to SIlver Bella on Thursday.  I pulled it out because it was with my supply list for Silver Bella.  I glanced at it and

My ticket was for WEDNESDAY not THURSDAY!  When my husband booked my flight for me he didn't hear me say THURSDAY.  I was not looking at a calendar at the time and I told him "Thursday the 11th".  Well if I'd looked i'd have noticed the 11th is WEDNESDAY.  So.  I get to go  a day early!  Yippee!  That means an extra day of fun!  My "big" little sis Karla already has big plans for lots of bellas, including a shopping spree at a fabulous vintage wallpaper place and a guided bus tour sponsored by Jessi!

If I had not looked at that paper, and waited until Wednesday night, I would have missed my flight!

I can't wait to share this experience with all of you! 

Lots of pictures when I return!

Did you go to class today?

Artist class is in full swing!  I'm up to my elbows in projects and can't wait to start more!  Time is just flying and before you know it Christmas will be here.  There are a lot of cute projects in this class to use as gifts too.

My project is scheduled to appear this week.  It's the "Pocket full of Treasures" scrapbook.  Here's another peek

It's a scrapbook created from an old record album book.

Here is my "bio"

In this workshop you will learn to make a keepsake book, full of pockets to hold your little treasures!  You will receive instructions on building your book by using a vintage record album book, or plain card stock.  We will be using lots of scrap fabric, hankies, trims, laces and jewels to add interest to you pockets.  You do not need to know how to sew to do this project!  You can use glue or stitch tape, or machine stitching.  The fun part is adding all the decorative embellishments to the completed pocket page!  Once completed, your book will hold all your special treasures for years to come.  Special occasions……...love notes from your spouse or children…….Christmas or Wedding Memories…..all held together in little pockets.  The beauty of this project is you are not altering your special keepsakes, but merely tucking them into the pockets to hold forever!

 
I'm hosting a giveaway of one of my Holiday Houses if you sign up for artist class in November using my coupon code "thriftymisspriss" and I'm also going to offer a bag of bits and pieces to use when you create your own "pocket full of treasures"  So thats $10.00 off for you, and a chance to win some great prizes!  Its a win-win situation!There will be other giveaways on the other artists blogs; as well as on the Artist Class blog itself. 

Check out the bio's  and see what this class has to offer! So many talented artists in one place showing us step by step instructions.  The blog will be open until February and I plan on using all that free time after Christmas to create a bunch of these projects, after life slows down a bit.

Have a terrific, creative week!

Little Visitor.......

Today is the first day ofArtist Class!  If you haven't heard all about it...I urge you to rush over to check it out!  Mary had selected a very talented group of people to teach us some really wonderful techniques!  I can't wait to get started on these projects!

Don't forget, if you sign up using my coupon code "thriftymisspriss" you will get $10.00 off which makes it only $4.00 per project!  You will also be entered into my giveaway of one of my Christmas Cottages! (see post below)

This weekend I invited my little friend daughter over for sleepover.  I think she gets the short end of the stick a lot of the time and I wanted to pamper her and make her feel SPECIAL.  It started out with dinner at I-Hop.  Then off to the grocery store for her to pick out lots of goodies for the sleepover.  I even let her scan all the groceries in the self check out...a kids dream job!

We got home late so we painted  pumpkins and got ready for bed.  I drew the face on this white pumpkin and let her pick all the colors.  She is so detail oriented she stuck with this for over an hour!

then it was off to bed.  She wanted Sarah to sleep with her so badly, she doesn't have any pets and she was so excited to have Sarah sleep there.  It lasted all of five minutes though.  Sarah is a mamas girl and wanted to be right by my side.

 
This morning bright and early I got a visitor crawling in bed with me.  My husband turned on cartoons and I got to sleep just a little bit longer.....It's been a LONG time since I had to get up with the chickens on a weekend!

We hit the ground running with crafts and activities!  After breakfast we ran around outside for a long time.  I put her to work raking.  She said she's never raked in her "whole life!"

My dogs just LOVE her and all the attention she gives to them.  They don't leave her side when she is here.

Of course after all that raking she had to do a LOT of running and jumping.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves......

 

after all that fun is was back to business!

She is going to be a black cat for Halloween so she chose the black cat theme for her pumpkin carving.

I really did not think she would be able to do this, and I didn't want to hover to make sure it was "perfect" but after I got the pattern on there she was able to do all the cutting.

  when my kids were little,  pumpkin carving used to stress me out!  The mess, the goo, the screaming and excitement was just TOO much.  I used to make my husband in charge of that activity! 

This time, I was laid back and relaxed.  I just supervised to be sure she didn't cut her thumb off.  I guess I've mellowed out quite a lot in my old age!

It turned out just like the picture on the package!

While she was doing all her craft activities I was working on a gift basket for a baby shower.  I made the little banner for the baby girl who will be born in December.  Her name will be Vera, which I think is so cute!  You don't hear other little girls with that name so I'm sure this little Vera will be quite unique!

Here's the gift basket I put together for her.  Full of little onsies and tights....patent leather shoes and suede boots too!

I hope you have a great week and a fun spooky Halloween!

Artist Class and a glittery sugar house Giveaway!

My friend Mary  is sponsoring an on line Artist Class.  She invited me to contribute a project and I'm excited to present to you "A Pocket Full Of Treasures Scrapbook"

This will be an on line tutorial of how to make my scrapbook along with LOTS  of other projects from other artists. 

My scrapbook is meant for holding all those little treasures you collect throughout life, but usually leave tucked away in a drawer or box.  After you've made your own scrapbook you can keep those special keepsakes all in one place without gluing them down.  This book had lots of little pockets to hold all those trinkets and treasures.

I used one of those OLD record album books and altered it into a scrapbook.  I will provide step by step instructions on how to do this.

The beauty of it is you do not need to know how to sew.  It can be glued or sewn.  I used both techniques and have to honestly say I like the gluing method better!

I'll even show you my mistakes and how I fixed them!  I will be using my book to take to Silver Bella to collect business cards and MOO cards.

  I can also see this scrap book being used for a scrapbook to hold little love notes from your kids.....or to hold special treasures from a vacation or a special event like a wedding.

 

I've signed up for several on line classes and have always enjoyed the challenge of the project.  This class gives you LOTS of different projects..not just one!  And if you use my coupon code "Thriftymisspriss" you will get $10.00 off!  It will basically cost less than $4.00 for each project!  I'm offering a fun giveaway to a lucky person who uses my coupon code as well. 

Wouldn't you like to live in one of these?

I will enter your name into the drawing if you sign up using my coupon code  The lucky winner will receive one of my sugared Christmas houses!  I will mail it to you in November so you can enjoy it with your Christmas decor.

Hop over to the Artist Class and take a peek!

Have a great week!

Halloween Decor-Thriftstore style

I usually don't decorate for Halloween anymore.  My kids are grown and I think my teenage daughter could care less if the house looks like Halloween. 

Yesterday I got in the mood to shake things up a little...like clear all the junk from the dinning room table that had accumulated over a long period of time.  That led to me taking all the stuff off the buffet and boxing it up.  I wondered what I could do with a fall theme, but I knew basically all I had was three white pumpkins I got for 75 cents several months ago.  I dug them out and the wheels set into motion. 

 

I knew I had another one of these glass domes packed away...never been used....found at a thrift store...so I grabbed it.....on the way back up from the basement I noticed the white Christmas lights I got at a yard sale this summer.... then I grabbed the little swiss dotted curtain from the thrift store and headed back up the stairs.

 

I was gathering trash to throw away and found crumbled up tissue from a pair of boots that my daughter had bought.  I put the lights down.....spread the tissue on top of them and then put the dotted swiss curtain on top.  You can just see the glow...not the harshness of each little bulb.

I also balled up the tissue and set the pumpkins on it...to give it some height in the dome.....

I shopped the house and gathered up all the little glass bottles I keep buying here and there and arranged them all on this little mirror I had bought over a year ago and had in the basement......(I noticed it when I went to get the glass dome!)

I couldn't believe all that I had bought....but spread out all over they didn't have the sparkly impact that they  now have.  I topped two of the big bottles off with the bracelets my daughter made for me and my other daughter to wear in her wedding.

Just keeping it real here...see the soap suds in that bottle?  I could not get that out!  I had washed them and that little fluff of suds would not budge. 

I stepped back and admired it.....

I thought it needed more.....

I grabbed a roll of black crepe paper and added some "true halloween" to the decor!

I've been ruffling this stuff like crazy!  I love to see how it ruffles up and I've been using it everywhere!

I found a cute little soup tureen and wanted to put these succulents in it.  I don't know if I can grow these inside...but outside they do great.  These belonged to my husbands Grandmother and they die off each winter and pop back up in the Spring outside.  I just dug them out of their pot and put them in this one.  I had the huge dome in my basement (a thrift store find) so I added that hoping it will keep the warmth inside the pot over the Winter.

just tying the crepe paper on various things made everything pop!  That black and white "runner" is actually a pillow sham that I bought for my daughters bridal shower table (at a thrift store!)

so at this point I have not one NEW thing here...every single item you see is from a thrift store or yard sale...including all the furniture!  But it sure felt new to me...all gathered together looking so happy and Halloweenish (sort of). 

I had to stop what I was doing to play taxi driver and on the way back I noticed these wildflowers growing along the road.  I had nothing to cut them with...but I pulled over and started yanking them out of the ground.  I do have to say I felt really silly....like a gypsy woman digging for taters on the side of the road or something!  I just KNEW at any minute my husband would drive along and think I'd really LOST MY MIND wading through waist high brush on the side of the road. 

I got back and threw them in a big water bucket for my front porch.  So not only was this a great find...just like my thrifty ones...this one was FREE

with enough left over for the inside

and here

see what happens when I try to take a picture?  She actually stood up on her back legs to get in this one.

I swished her away.....tried to focus then Heidi had to get in on it too...

I added a few spooky touches to the buffet...

these free images are from Karen The Graphics Fairy...I also hung a few in front of the mirror....and reversed the image on the back so you could see it in the reflection.....

 and one last little touch.....this frame was 99 cents at Goodwill.  It weighs about one pound..it's SUPER heavy......it's not really my style and I was going to spray paint it.  I decided to keep it like it is for a while and I added this to it.....

my husband brought me those little pink carnations NINE days ago....they last forever......

see the little pearl pins in the flower?  My daughter had those in her bridal bouquets and I saved them to add to fresh flowers.  The add a little sparkle to the flowers!

I hope you have a wonderful week!

A Beautiful Life Journal

I recently participated in an on line journal class hosted by Heather.  Everything she does she pours her heart into...and this was no exception!

The theme was "A beautiful life".  Heather provided a lot of beautiful images and wallpapers for us to download to use in the journals.  I found a few old song books that were small enough for this project.  I used sheet music from these books throughout my project.

 
I won't explain every little detail...but I wanted to use really special things that I've been saving.  The tatting used here was done by my Grandmother who was born in 1895.  A relative sent me her sewing box last year and there are all sorts of treasures in there.

I used a lot of Heathers images that she provided, but also used some of my own.  I ventured off course a little and made a "title page" in my book too.

 
The last page I created a little pocket out of Heathers image...and inserted a little tag.....I wrote on it what a "Beautiful Life" means to me.

I was happy to find the music "Gay Robin Redbreast" in the music book.  Anytime I see anything with the name Robin or bird related I like to use it.  I was born with a red birthmark right above my heart....and I think it's kind of funny that my mom named me Robin.....but then again...she named my brother Brett but the moment she brought him home she thought he looked like a "pete" and we never called him Brett again!  She used to call us Pete and Re-pete.

But back to the journal!  Heather is leaving the workshop open until the end of October I think.  You can work at your own pace.  Anyone can do this.  You can spend as little or as much time as you want on it.  I love my little book I made and will add it to my little growing collection.   Speaking of book collections.....the fat book sign ups were finalized last weekend.  The participants are:  Mary, Cari B., Joyce, Julie Ann, Lynnae, Karen, Kelly, Jill, Judith, Leslie and Carrie.  If you do not see your name listed and you signed up please let me know!  Also if you signed up but did not get an email from me let me know. 

This morning I stepped outside to get some decent daylight pictures of my journal.  I glanced up and saw this.  

 
 
I watch that little lonely sad face every morning as I back out of the driveway to go to work.  When I pull in at night she is there peeking out waiting.  She knows the time line and won't lay there all day...but around 5pm she gets back up on the couch and waits for me.  I can remember watching out the window down the street every night at 5pm waiting for my moms baby  blue mustang to come zipping down the street into the driveway......

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

   

Fat Book thoughts.......

Thank you so much everyone for all the wedding Love!  The day was perfect and will always be a special memory for our family! 

Now that it's behind me.....I've been wanting to take on a collaborative project for a long time. I've just been waiting for the right time to do it......

Last February I participated in a fat book swap hosted by Dede.  We made lots of pages based on the valentine theme and sent them all to Dede.  She separated them, divided them up and put them together into fat books and mailed them all back. If you go to Dede's archives and look in January 09 you can see all the beautiful pages there.

She altered a hardback book by removing the pages and inserted all the fat book pages inside.

I just drooled over this beautiful artwork for months after wards.  It sits on a shelf in my art room where I can see it, open it, feel it on a regular basis. It's nice to have the work of so many others in your own book.  I've wanted to participate in another one immediately after I received this.

I thought I'd host my own fat book swap.  I've thought a lot about the theme and I've come up with "Winter Whites". Wouldn't a book stuffed full of ivory, cream, and white pages be beautiful?    Each participant would make a designated number of pages..(depending on how many people joined) mail them to me by the deadline and I will assemble and mail the fat book back to you.

Here are some pages from the Valentine book

This was the first time I'd ever participated in something like this.  I was a little nervous but like Dede said....everyone has to start somewhere! 

Do you like to collage?  Sew? Paint? Rubber stamp?  If you answered yes to any of these questions maybe you'd like to join me?  You might think you don't have enough   images of your own to use for a project like this....well flickr has thousands of copyright free photos that you can use. I will provide you with lots of links to websites that offer free images. Do you know Karen the Graphics Fairy?  She has beautiful images that she shares on a daily basis practically.  Mary is another source of wonderful images....some free, some very reasonably priced!

If you are interested in joining send me an email at thrifty underscore misspriss at yahoo dot com   I will post all the details.........who, what, when etc.  You may be signing up to make as few as 5 pages or as many as 16!  The more we have participating the FATTER your book will be!  I'm thinking the deadline will be the first week in November.  That will give me time to get them all separated and assembled and back out to you by the end of the month...in time for you to enjoy all "winter" long!

Enjoy your week!

Perfect day for a perfect wedding!

It was a perfect day yesterday for an outside wedding!  Middleburg Virginia is an old historic Virginia town known for foxhunting and steeplechasing,  and it was such a beautiful setting.

Before the ceremony I captured my daughter with her Matrons of Honor and her bridesmaids and flower girls in the dressing room.  Little Lily is the one in front looking up adoringly at her soon to be aunt.

this little one is the niece of my son in law (feels WEIRD saying that!)  She has lived with them for a few years with her mom so they are all very close.  She thinks the world of her Uncle and it was such a special day for her to be a big part of it.

She got so emotional while they were taking their vows.  I could see her blinking away tears.  I kept making happy faces at her from my seat, I couldn't understand what was wrong! 

This is when her tears started to flow......

After the ceremony when the wedding party walked inside alone she buried her face in my legs and sobbed.  I took her to a quiet corner to find out what was happening and she couldn't even put it into words!

  I told her that nothing was changing in her world, that it was all over and now she could dance and have fun!  It took her a few minutes but she got back to her normal self and had a wonderful time!

Nothing like dancing with your sisters to release a lot of pent up nerves!  I'm so lucky to have them in my life and that we have such a wonderful close relationship!

My daughter has been living out on her own for several years.  She planned and organized the whole thing and did all the work herself!  She had the food catered but all the table decor was planned by her.  We were able to go in the place on Friday and set it all up.

we made all the flower arrangements including the bridal bouquet and all the bridesmaids bouquets.  We did this Thursday evening after the flowers were delivered federal express.  They still looked wonderful on Saturday.  My 16 year old daughter caught the bouquet!  I think she had to plow down about 20 eligible ladies to do it though...........

This pictures captures how beautiful her hair looked.  I wonder if her dad is giving her advice on the secret to a happy marriage?  Whatever he is saying it looks like she is listening carefully.

Here are my three kids together

It was just a wonderful time. We are  so proud of the woman she has grown up to be!

Journal Pages

It's been a while since I've made time for Journaling.  I go in spurts.

 

paper doll is from Suzee Que on flickr-great images that she finds and shares!

"photographs back ground paper" from The Graphics Fairy-always so sweet to share her BEAUTIFUL images with everyone!

Little girl in photo strip above and my new blog banner is from Jamie at Art-e-ology.  Jamie gave me her blessings to use the sweet image in my blog banner too!

I was playing with contrast and brightness in Picassa....it's free and a decent photo editing program.

I heard this quote the other day and it stuck with me.  This one is in my "edgy" journal....the one where I try different techniques and don't really care how it turns out.  The Little GIrl Lost page is from my "pretty book" (that's what I'm calling it) where I do my "safe" stuff.

I opened a book one day and this little fortune was in it.  How I managed to save it without loosing it I'll never know.

Over atMind Wide Opena challenge is posted to take a piece of digital art and do what you want with it.  I've never played along before but sometimes I'm just stuck and sit there not knowing what to create.  Driving home from work one day I was at a light and I was looking at blogs on my iphone (I wasn't moving!)  I saw this challenge and immediately knew what I wanted to do!  It just started spewing out of my brain so fast I couldn't think fast enough.

The theme is "daughter"

This is the beautiful image you are supposed to play with.  I of course ran out of blue ink that night and I was bummed.  I printed it out and black and white and made the best of the situation.  I told myself this was just a practice run.

I liked how it turnout out so I'm leaving it as is!  I have to send it to Mind Wide Open for voting on 9/8/09.  I think I will check back more often for prompts to get me going.

I like to journal about my mom.  I miss her so much!  She is here but she can't really communicate with me anymore.  She acts as if she recognizes me and my sisters but who knows.  She might be putting on a good act.  When she tries to talk it comes out all backwards and makes no sense.  Usually I just talk to her and keep the conversation light.  We might watch the animal planet or look at a coffee table book.  I never know whats going on inside her mind.  She does try hard to get words out but it doesn't always work.  When I heard the song "Landslide" last year while driving with my mom it really made me so sad.  It's kind of become "that song" that I get so sad about my mom when I hear it on the radio.  I hear it MAYBE once every few months.  Saturday driving to the bridal shower it came on the radio......oh the tears started!  I tried to slap myself to pull it together........so the other night when I was making the collage.....guess what song came on?  Yep!  Is that weird or WHAT?  This time it didn't make me nearly as sad.  Maybe art is therapeutic.

 Have a wonderful THREE DAY WEEKEND!  Yay!

Introducing......

Bella!

My son and his girlfriend adopted one of my sisters Pomeranian puppies.  They have named her Bella and she's a tiny little ball of fur.  She turned 8 weeks old on Saturday, so after the bridal shower Bella got to go home to her new life with my son and his sweetie.  They brought her over the next day to introduce her to her aunties....Heidi and Sarah.

 My dogs have never seen a pup so small and it was quite the excitement at first.  We had to do it very slowly and Bella did not like it one bit.  She was patient and let them get all the sniffing out of their system.

She looks like a little kitten and is as playful as one too.  There were three other pups in the litter and believe me....it's taking every ounce of restraint not to rush back over there and grab one of them!

 Here are a few of them with their daddy, Baxter at the bridal shower. 

this is one of my sisters saying goodbye to sweet Bella

When Bella visited me on Sunday at my house, there were more cameras flashing than a White House Press Conference.  She is so adorable and we just couldn't get enough of her!

I think Heidi is coming in for a taste....at least thats what we thought....so she was sternly told "NO!" and she stopped right in her tracks.

so many new things to explore!

  After a while she got so sleepy.....too much excitement for one day.

I'm sure you will be seeing many more pictures of my new grand dogger!