Whipped cream and sprinkles.....

This people is a random post - like the sprinkles on the whipped cream specialty drinks at my local coffee shop -- The Buzz. Owned by Marc and Tracy Ingram. A wonderful place, welcoming and fun. The photo below was one of Tracy's for the message of hope journal we created.

The picture just does not show how special this page is. The picture in the middle is embellished with metallic gel inks -- fabulously done. Beautiful.

MaryAnn - posted a photo of one of her craft closets this morning. Her trick for keeping it all together - and we all know she has it together - take the doors off. I am guilty of "sticking" things behind doors - so this idea will work for me beautifully. She also asks what our storage "vessels" of choice are.

My favorites - cigar boxes ( I have a friend who keeps the wooden ones for me from her hubby's habit.) These stack so wonderfully and I have two big open shelf units planned for the barn. Using her idea. If you are a regular reader, you know that I repurpose many many things. Old bottles, jars, boxes. This seems to fit my style and organizing ideals. The boxes on the shelves will have tags on them. There is one big kitchen style cabinet in the studio - I will put big plastic totes of yarn, felt, silk flowers, etc in that cabinet. It will also hold the spray paint and other bigger items. The drawers are another thing. More on that later.

For lack of a way to pull all of this post together. I am sharing some road trips for all of you. Please go and visit these places. You will have a wonderul trip.

I recycle, reuse, repurpose so much stuff. People bring me leftovers. People give me things. I save even the smallest scraps of paper, yarn, fabric, ribbon. I collect ideas from everywhere. I have a cigar box labeled "funky cardboard" that contains some corragated bits and even some bits of boxes that caught my attention. Those coffee sleeves go in that box too. I have flats of square spaggetti sauce jars and this next post has my attention - go see ArtsyMama today and look at the valentine ideas she picked up at a demonstration. I really like the jar mobiles and the cowboy card (slighty naughty). See if you think one of these reminds you of the work over at Janes Apron. I have every thing in my stash to adapt any of these ideas.

I adore paper - fabric - ribbon - yarn - metal - stamps - buttons beads - on and on. List it and I probably got it in my stuff. I also am very sentimental. I made boxes for a friend of mine telling the story of a relationship. I must retreive some of those pages and take pictures. I like giving gifts that mean a lot to me while I make them and to the recipient when they get them. When I saw this screen, I knew that I had to star it and share it with all of you. A canvas scrapbook screen from Donna Downey. Oh my - how much fun would something like this be. In the making and the giving.

I am unconventional. I love all kinds of people. We have very well off friends. We have truly poor friends. We have friends who have built their own home - literally. We have friends with decorator assisted homes. Farmers, bakers, lawyers, brick masons, plumbers, electricians, sales people, business owners, waitresses. Again you name it - we probably have a friend in that type of work. I refuse to dismiss a person, because of a preconceived notion. Race is never a factor. Economics either. Culture - not even a consideration. Creed - where you came from has no impact on where you might wind up. I posted something the other day that may have offended some. I refered to artists as often being "fringe" people. That is not a derogatory statement in my life. I have friends in the arts - perfoming, written, and visual. The lifestyle they chose is beautiful to us. Most are married and a spouse picks up things like insurance. They choose to live the eclectic lifestyle and I love that fact. Molly made the decision to NOT pursue art as a major, because she wants to pursue a more mainstream lifestyle accented by her loves of the arts. She does not want to teach in a school system at all. This decision was personal and I hope no one was offended by my choice of words.

I first saw this name - Sandra Evertson on my comments many months ago. I was more than a little starstruck. I love her stuff. I love her blog. I have not seen one thing that I didn't like at her place. This link takes you to a caged habitat. Look at the variety of inhabitants. An illustration of all kinds of people - representing what I adore. It takes us all to make it interesting. This is the kind of project that would be a fun collaboration/swap to participate in. Everyone making a different inhabitant and putting it all together.

I love poking around in thrift stores. The mountain areas around where I live have tons of junk shops. Rural north Georgia has an abundance of antique malls and flea markets. My idea of a great vacation would be to drive from small town to small town and just poke around in all those shops. My hometown has a lady who yard sales every Saturday. I am not talking goes to yard sales, she has one at her house every Saturday. The mix of items is wonderful, you have to dig through heaps of junk for treasures though. Way fun. Mom and I love to include a stop here when we go out and play on Saturdays.

Recycling is the theme of this link. Just look at what you can do with true junk and garbage. When I first got into swaps - via swapbot - haven't been over there in months, my favorite swaps were challenge swaps. You were given a list of materials and then expected to create something from them. MaryAnn and I swapped items in the past just for the purpose of using them to make something and returning the completed item. One of my favorite inspirations (sorry I could not find a link and I am not going to post the photo without references) is an address card file made from those crazy cards that fall out of magazines and the like. If anyone has seen this type of item (etsy maybe) and can give me a link, I'll add it here.

I love vintage fabrics, ribbon, lace. I never know exactly what is becoming of some thing I pick up. I know all of you thrifters often do the same thing. Those with vintage pillowcase fetishes take a look over here. Calamity Kim gives us cool instructions for a pillowfight bag.

And now so that you guys can really see what I love. This lady literally lives in the boondocks of Texas, in a most magnificent location. I would wear her clothes everyday if I could afford them. Take off and see and if you have several 100 dollars in spare change, email me and I'll provide my personal way too big measurements for you. Robin is publishing a book this summer - I cannot wait. There is new news as well - she's started a blog.

I am also a beginnning quilter. I love quilt shows and can waste hours on Flickr using the search term quilt. Well this blogger attended a quilt show with some of the most magnificant work I have ever seen. Take a look the the ruffled majesty of the very first picture. Moonstitches is a new blog for me. I discovered it while following links. I have added it to my GoogleReader list along with a ton of others.

The last link is to a lady that I have read almost since the day she started blogging. Lovely lady. Lovely home. Lovely work. Look what she did to her closet. Pam's closet is adapted from another lady's idea (follow the link from pam's place) and this will be morphed again in my studio. I saved a bunch of J.Peterman and Anthro catalogs -surprise surprise - and with the paper stash and old books that I have will be covering a shelf (free) in the studio.

Please let me know what you think of this loverly road trip. Have a wonderful day.