My Everything Corner

This absolutely fabulous piece of art was done by Ester Orloff of E Makes Art , and I was lucky enough to win it. During the One World One Heart blogging event, organized by Lisa Swifka , hundreds of bloggers chose something, usually their own creations, to giveaway. Then all we had to do was spend a bit of time blog hopping around the world, leaving comments for all the wonderful bloggers and artists out there. At the end, we just chose a random number out of our hundreds of comments, and Voila!, a winner! Anyway, more about Esther - she is a stay at home Mom, and a talented artist who loves mixed media, photography, and even making the occasional piece of jewelry. All of her work is beautiful, and if I had to chose one word to describe her pieces, it would be 'calming'. Here are some samples of her jewelry . Truly unique and wonderful pieces. Click here to see one of my other favourite pieces, besides the one I won, of course. Take a bit of time, maybe with some tea, and p...

The One World One Heart blog tour is over. What a ton of fun that was. I met so many wonderful people and their art, and have added several more blogs to my reading list. A huge Thank-you goes to Lisa Swifka for organizing this huge event. The amount of work she put into it is so much appreciated by all of us in blog land. The winner of my stone necklace is Vicki from 2 Bags Full , a beautiful blog about her travels and her adventures in knitting and in life. I hope you enjoy your new necklace Vicki. I have not, as yet, been contacted from any of the blogs I visited during the event, but if I am lucky enough to win something, you'll read about it here. Thank-you to everyone who participated and to everyone that visited my blog. Although this event is over, I am definitely not finished with bloghopping. I look forward to meeting many more bloggers and their many forms of art.

This collection has only been recently started. Last year, I came across a necklace on Ebay, and I just had to have it. It turned out to be, for the price, of exceptional quality and detail. I was hooked, and suddenly found myself researching vintage and older costume jewelry. I found out that there are a lot of people with the same fascination, as there was plenty of material out there to read, and I am still reading. I've purchased entire lots, just for one single piece. The others, though beautiful in their own right, ended up in my Etsy shop. Although, I have to admit, there have been a few that ended up back in my drawer, and there have been a couple that I regret selling. I only hope I come across them again. The brooch in the photo is by Trifari, and that seems to be my favourite brand. I am definitely not a 'brand' person. But time and time again, I am drawn to the designs that Trifari put out. This molded glass brooch is one of several pieces I have now...

This is what we spent a good portion of our day doing yesterday. In the morning we baked, and after lunch we decorated. A large portion of cookies went undecorated and will go to my Son's Kindergarten class tomorrow. Using pink, purple, red, white and a few sprinkles, we put together a beautiful assortment of cookies to celebrate each other. Several days ago, we also created little boxes so that we could create Valentines for each other and have somewhere to keep them until we open them on Tuesday. We will be celebrating a day late because that's when Daddy gets home from camp. . . . . . . . . . The kids picked an assortment of different shapes. These are Kaitlynn's cookies and included here are hearts, flowers, birds and kitties. Also, being the super-duper kid that she is, she handmade all of her Valentines. She did 25 for her class, and several for her family as well. I can't wait to see what she put together. . . . . . . . . . . . . These are Jared's cookies. ...

Here is my first real attempt at a zentangle. I say 'real' because my actual first attempt was a bit of a cheat. First of all, I used pencil, and therefore was too tempted to use an eraser. This is a big no-no when working this particular form of art. The idea is to 'go-with-the-flow', use a pen, and see where that mistake leads you. This art of doodling is a sort of meditation. It is not only very calming, but in the end, surprisingly rewarding. In this one, I borrowed my son's hand and traced it, then continued from there. In about 2 hours, (divided), I had completed not only a piece of art, but a keepsake of the size of my little guy's hand at the age of 5. Are there mistakes in there? Yes. Would I do things differently next time? Yes, but that's the whole point, they are all different. There are no two alike. I came across this idea when blog hopping around the world during the 'One World One Heart' bloggers event, and new instantly tha...