Cut 'n Paste

Playing with dolls

I don't know about you, but it seems like every year things start to get a little bit crazy around this time. Working in the paper crafts industry, our major trade show of the year is always in January, so it makes the fall very busy and stressful. I have always thought that the person who decided that the major trade show should be in the New Year just wasn't thinking as it makes Christmas - which is already a busy time of year - absolutely crazy!

Anyways, like many of my colleagues, things have been really busy here, which means that I have not had a lot of time to generate blog posts. However, I thought you might like to see the doll head I purchased while in Oregon earlier this month for the art retreat. It has been many months since I added a baby to my collection, but this one was too sweet to resist.

Hey Baby Doll!

Take a look at my newest baby doll. After not adding any new heads to my collection for a little over a year, I brought this one home last week. The photo doesn't really show her size. She is about 5.5" wide and 7" high - nice and big.

After a weekend of reflection for so many of us, another week dawns with a 'to-do' list a mile long ☺ I am finishing up work assignments and getting myself ready for a trip to Panama, which I leave for on Saturday. I am really looking forward to meeting new friends and getting to know my host better.

I'm also looking forward to a few of my favorite tv shows beginning this week. Survivor is always a favorite around here, so Rick and are happy that it is starting up again. 

What are you looking forward to this week?

Something about that little red head...

As you read this, I'll be on my way to spend the weekend with one of my favorite red heads (Rachel Killpack from the Melissa Frances design team) in the Pleasanton area of California. 

Thinking of Rachel reminded me of this photo I took of a few of my doll heads last summer. That little red one has got to be one of my most favorite finds ever - she just has the most perfect face! There is a funny background story on those dolls...If I'm not too tired, I'll post the story sometime this weekend. Otherwise look for it on Monday.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Big/Little

 

You all know how much I love my doll heads, LOL! Sweet Laura Vigliarolo decided I should add some complete dolls to my collection. She sent me the large doll a few months back, and I added the little one while in Omaha in November. Thanks Laura. (Be sure to visit her blog if you haven't already done so, Laura is one creative cookie).

So sweet!

(If you haven't signed up for the giveaway below, please check it out. It's a good one!)

From Melissa...

As promised a week or so ago, here is the precious doll head which Melissa gave me. She's very different than any of my others, and her facial flaw only makes me love her more. She currently sits above my desk in my studio and keeps watch as I work each day.

Happy Birthday to my Dad!

This weekend Rick and I took my mom and dad to Seattle for the Mariners game on Friday night. While the team lost, it was a really fun weekend. We were celebrating my Dad's 60th birthday which will happen this coming weekend while I am away for work. We hit up our 2 favorites for dinner Fri and Sat, The Cheesecake Factory and Ruth's Chris's Steakhouse. Yummy. 

We spent most of the trip together with my folks, but each couple had free time on Saturday morning/afternoon. So Rick and I took the opportunity to check out a camera store in Seattle (I wanted to look at a fish eye lens in person as I'm seriously thinking of purchasing one for my trip to France in the fall), and we went to one antique store on our way to Seattle and one in the city. I found some old photos (of course!), 2 vintage necklaces, a cash ledger book, a green wooden tool chest  (which is on the bottom of the above photo), and a wee doll (featured in photo). I was also thrilled to find a 75% off sale at Paper Source. Be still my heart.

All in all, we sure had fun. My dad enjoyed his first Mariners game and my back did way better than I had expected. I'm still seeing the chiropractor, but the constant pain is now gone, and has now morphed into a constant, dull throbbing. This is improvement people! So glad that I seem to be responding well to treatment :)

That's all for now! I hope to have a giveaway posted tomorrow, so be sure to check back :)

Ouch and ahhhhh....

I've been back from the trade show and my girlfriends escape for a little over a week now....I've been busy with work items and designing fun fall classes! But the main thing that's been keeping me from the keyboard has been a back injury. While packing up our booth at CHA, I momentarily threw my back out. It was very sore for about a minute, but then the pain went away....so I thought that everything was fine. It was only after getting home and doing laundry one night when my back went out again and this time stayed in pain for days that I've realized that I have a problem. For the past few days I've been trying to take care of my back and have been going to the chiropractor for the first time in my life. So far I've seen small improvements, but I'm sore all the time. We're hoping that it will be a short course of treatment and that I'll be back to 'normal' in about a month...we'll see. In the meantime ice packs are my friend :-)

Enough about my back, I though you would enjoy seeing a sweet piece of art I purchased right before leaving for CHA. It arrived right after I came home and I really love it. It was created by the talented Lisa Kaus. She has such a way of creating texture and depth in her pieces, and needless to say I'm beyond smitten with the fact that it uses an old doll. How perfect!

Speaking of dolls, I found the motherload of doll parts while antiquing with the girls in Michigan. I purchased a box lot and it was so much fun to unpack it and see what treasures it held. In addition, right before leaving for the trade show I received a fabulous head and doll head mold from Melissa who found them at Brimfield, and one from this sweet girl who found me one in California. How I love my collection and am so thankful for friends who are so generous and kind! 

This 'n That

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past week. Like many who work in the scrapbook industry, I'm buried under assignments as the second largest trade show of the year begins very soon.

I thought I'd leave you with a shout out to the fab Ms Foof for securing a special speaker extraordinaire for Silver Bella. As an owner of every issue of Home Companion, I'm just over the moon excited. Every time I think that T can't possibly outdo herself, she does. What a fabulous kick off to the holiday season it will be!

I've got to get back to work now. Thanks for popping by I hope to have some Melissa Frances sneak peeks for you soon.

(ps - Do you like my newest wee doll? I really wanted to add another doll with shoulder plate to my doll head collection. But he/she is just so cute that I'm having trouble performing the head removing surgery. I think this one just may remain in tact!)

Thank you!

I'm so happy to report that little baby Noah has been released from the hospital and is now back at home. He came home on Tuesday. Understandably his mother in particular is emotionally spent. Between recovering from her c-section, having two others (the the oldest being 4) and Noah's hospital stay, she is pretty worn out. But as a family we're all trying to help and ease the burden for her. I spent a fun mid-morning and afternoon with her and the boys yesterday. Thank you so much to each of you who took a moment to say a little prayer and send well wishes.

I returned home from CHA and my girlfriends weekend Saturday afternoon. All I can say is that if Pam or Amy ever invite you to a party, say yes as quickly as possible. It was magical. We're working on a way to share it with you...hopefully there will be more info on that in the coming days. Without question we missed our bella sister Kim, hopefully you're doing well sweet girl! Shopping with the girls was a dangerous experience...I'm sure that far too much $$ was spent, but our art and home will be beautifully adorned in the coming months (wink). Big thanks to Pam and Suzi who planned a fabulous escape for us. xoxo

Upon returning home Saturday afternoon Rick and I went out for dinner (at a yummy Italian restaurant that was a new discovery for us) before heading to The Ten Tenors concert in Vancouver. It was a belated Birthday gift for Rick (who had his birthday while I was working at CHA) and Valentine's Day gift. If popera is your kind of music, I would highly recommend going to this concert tour. It was very enjoyable.

This week I'm trying to get caught up on emails and contacts made at CHA. I'm beyond excited about an exciting international teaching trip that was approved by Melissa earlier this week that I'll be taking with a Bella friend, and I'm working hard to finalize some other class details so that I can update the class calender on the sidebar. Within the next few weeks I should have events in Vancouver, Phoenix and Boston up with dates and store info. I hope to meet many of you this coming year, and if you are a scrapbook store or have one near you who would like me to come teach, please feel free to email me and we can talk!

As I sign off the picture of the doll head is a recent acquisition from an antique store near me, and the other photo contains treasures that I found antiquing with Melissa in Orange, CA, shopping with the bella girls, and some new stamps that I bought at CHA and am looking forward to using.

We have a winner, and other assorted things

Sorry for the delay in getting the winner posted from the Winter Cheer Giveaway #2. Yesterday I was anxiously waiting for a friends results from some medical tests, so decided to try and distract myself by going antique shopping in the States. Miraculously although she was never far from my mind, it did help. It's been ages since I've taken a day to hunt for treasures. I've stopped for a few moments the odd time when picking up my mail (there is an antique shop right by my US post office box). But as for spending a whole day? That hasn't happened since before Silver Bella. So yesterday I headed off to my favorite haunts, seeking treasures to add to my collections. By the time I came home I'd bought the following:

• I had found 11 silver glass ornaments with just the perfect amount of tarnish on them
• 2 glittered houses (I really want to make something like these ones that Linda made which were shown in the Melissa Frances Dec/Jan newsletter)
• a spelling primer from 1892
• the most perfect portrait (approximately 9x6) of 2 sisters taken in 1902  (I paid too much for it, but they looked so lonely and in need of someone to take them home. I felt positive that my studio would be a much happier place for them than the antique mall)
• a new doll head (yes, it is an illness, lol!)
• Oh, and I found the mother-load...a huge tray of mother of pearl buttons and another one of rhinestone buttons. I left an offer for the dealer with the antique shop and they called me back this morning with a counter offer which I've accepted. It's one of those things where all being said, it's a lot of money to buy them, but it's still a good deal....you know what I mean? It's like buying a house that is valued for 5 million for 1 million. It's still a lot of money, but it's a good deal...I'll show them to you when I bring them home sometime next week.

I got home around 7pm and after hearing no news from my friend spent the rest of the evening incredibly worried (she'd told me the day before that no news meant bad news, and to please give her space)...so hopefully you understand why I didn't post the draw. I had horrible luck trying to fall asleep, last time I looked at the clock it was 4:32 AM and my mind was still worrying. Fast forward to this morning, and Rick wakes me up and tells me that my friend is on the phone. She was all apologetic and told me that she was so worn out the day before that after getting good news she'd gone right to bed. (Poor thing, she'd been incredibly worried and not slept much in the preceding days). I was SO relieved. What an answer to prayer. We needed a Christmas miracle, and this certainly filled the bill!

So now to the question that most of you are wondering about...who is the winner of Winter Cheer Giveaway #2?

I'll be emailing you shortly sweet girl!

To finish up, here's my holiday music pick for today. It's from the Celtic Woman Christmas television special which is airing several times throughout the holiday season on PBS. I find the choreography a bit too staged, but my-oh-my, those gals can sing. It's a beautiful holiday album. Enjoy!