A little smile for you today!

Unrepaired rip in lanai screen=4 baby wrens

We've had a front row seat from my kitchen window and also from our family room watching Mama and Papa wren build the nest. It was a perfect spot, the nest is protected by an impervious roof over the potted plant they selected, and there was even nesting material nearby from my wreath which provided dried moss; it hangs about 3 ft. away on the wall.

There were 4 eggs and I think there are 4 chicks.....they are so tucked into the nest it's difficult to tell so far.  Mama and Papa hop in all day long to keep them fed.

The breach, I had to convince Rob to leave the torn out section for a little while

Nesting material provided, no charge, by innkeeper

View from my kitchen window

View from the family room door

Perfect

Just a couple of days old

1 week old today

Found this wonderful etsy shop!

Several weeks ago, my good etsy friend Melana and the Etsy Angels Team put together an online auction to benefit Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.  I bid on and won these fabulous burp cloths from Etsy seller Jennifer of ArrighiBaby

I love that these are not the standard pastel baby colors!  I loved them so much I bought 2 more from Jennifer's shop. They are thick and heavily sewn, amazing construction for something that has to be tough, stand up to repeated washing, and if like most, several babies!

But there is more to this story and I'm hoping when you need a beautifully sewn baby quilt or cloths, you'll keep Jennifer and ArrighiBaby in mind.  I am not a member of the etsy angels team, I'd never done business with Jennifer until I won the auction. I've had many conversations with Jennifer over the last couple of weeks.  Not only are her products the best, but she is very responsive to my emails, etsy convos, questions and just has downright old fashioned manners and thoughtfulness.  She is a stay-at-home Mom and her last pregnancy was very rough, but she and the baby are doing wonderfully.  

I couldn't wait to share Jenn and her shop with you, I'll be back to shop there again!

Paper Mache Hot Air Balloon Finished!

Waiting for paint to dry

Painted and stained

Ta-Dah

Finally..........a purpose to use up all my stash of upholstery trims!  And for such a beautiful, cute cute cute, ornie!  Next step, sometime this year, is to try doll heads/faces with paper mache!  Does art ever quit? !! Thankfully..........NO!

Thank you Iva Wilcox, for reintroducing me to paper mache for big girls! Loved loved loved taking your class at Artful Gathering!

Paper Mache with Iva Wilcox and Artful Gatherings

The last time I played with paper mache I had to be in single digit numbers age-wise, a very very long time ago.  Blew up the balloon, covered it with the home made mache paste and after it dried, us Brownie Scouts popped the balloon and painted the ball with tempera paints. It was uneventful enough I can't even remember the colors I painted.

So.......having some creative ambitions in mind, I signed up for Iva Wilcox's Up, Up and Away on-line class over at Artful Gatherings (still available to join Session One classes through tomorrow, June 20, then there are more classes being offered for Session Two, registration is open now with classes for Two beginning on July 15)

All the videos in Iva's class are available to watch at one time, I really like that instead of having to wait for each one to become available one at a time between days or weeks. And they stay available for some time so I can go back and re-visit details I forget. They do eventually become unavailable tho.  In that case you can purchase DVDs from the instructors for most, if not all, of the classes available at Artful Gatherings.

So, here's the WIP on my paper mache project for Up, Up and Away.  I have to admit, Iva makes it look so easy, I was more worried about the painting part.  But I'm a bit challenged in areas that surprised me! LOL!  And I must admit, I'm improvising on some of the materials, so if things don't quite come out as expected, I look right in the mirror for the problem.

Iva's special sauce, ready for mixing.

  

Drying in the sun

This is when I realized not to rely on my memory when starting the actual project a week after watching the vids.  I thought one added the strips to the sauce to soak........nopie, that couldn't be further from the truth.  One dips and slaps it on, right then and there. I had a bit of a goopy mess for awhile. Consequently the bottom of the ball, ended up a bit thick.....and I didn't realize it until it dried completely. 

This is where I left off last night, it's tougher to center the dowel on the bottom of the ball than I thought.  Iva's trick is great, but I prolly should have taken a little more time adjusting before punching in that dowel (one of my improvisions, a chopstick works great.  In fact next time I'm going to leave on the pointy end of the chopstick instead of sawing it off.)  The good news is that it's centered enough it appears gravity makes it hang level.

   

To be continued....

 

If you love ATC ACEO swaps........lookie here!

 I met Denise in a Facebook group called Art for Arts Sake and immediately loved several things about her.  She has unending generosity, unending energy and enthusiasm, unending

ideas, unending talent, unending sense of humor.........and she loves coffee. 'nuff said.

She is the hostess for a monthly ACEO swap over on her blog, Birdnuts Mixed Media

Just create and mail Denise up to 3 of your handmade ACEOs and Denise mails you back 3 of her ACEOs, as the fabulous ones I received the first time I joined in the fun. The theme for April was Childhood Memories.

May's theme was Event

Denise and I exchanged some awesome ephemera paper treats! 

And, if receiving ACEOs from Denise wasn't enough of a treat, when you participate in Birdnuts ACEO swap, you are entered into a drawing for an awesome prize, 1 entry for each ACEO, like June's prize hostess, Nancy Buamiller from Crowabout StudioB...$25 gift certificate from her awesome shop!

Hope you'll join this great swap soon!

Surprise! A win from a fabulous digital images artist, Dezinaworld!

What a surprise I had last month when I was one of 

3 winners of this fabulous giveaway from June Mac of

Dezinaworld. June offers digital design sheets for your purchase and download.  I just love how she created 

faux cabinet cards from vintage photos. I use vintage photos and cabinet cards in my mixed media work mucho!

June, thank you so much for such delightful images and

for the many freebies you offer so often at Dezinaworld. You'll also find some great ideas on June's blog for using

her image downloads.  

Her current design team includes June Yarham, Daniella Hayes, Gayle-Page Robak, Chris Arlington, Lynne Moncrieff, Kim B, and Cindy Adkins.

Stop in and enjoy, say hello and you can find Dezinaworld

on Facebook, too.

Free Image for You

For Windows, right click on image and "save image as" to where ever you keep your .jpg files on your computer.  This is high resolution so it may take a little while to upload. The photo editing is up to you.