be yourself: live with passion

what inspired me?

I'm often asked what my creative sources of inspiration are and that's an easy question to answer.  I get my inspiration from everywhere!  Books that I read, magazines, shopping for home decor, junking, gardening and just being in nature, traveling, eating out...they all contribute to my creative inspiration.  To narrow down a specific inspiration for a specific project...now that's harder to pinpoint.  I tend to pull from here and there...kind of like going into a girls' gym locker room with all of the small lockers and pulling out a little something from each locker.  Hmmm, maybe that's not such a good analogy, seeing what's in most girl's gym lockers :))!  But, you get the point, right?

When Valerie suggested that I do a series of white books, I decided to create a summer white book, which became June's creatologie kit.  Before I even started to plan the project, this photo popped into my mind and I knew exactly how this book would look.

Meet Caroline, the beautiful youngest daughter of sweet Paige, whose blog I have followed for a while.  By the way, Paige was one of the people who bought my very first white book!

This, in my mind, is the quintessential summer picture...white linen or cotton dress, straw hat, beautiful sand and water, and a gorgeous child...what more could you ask for?

Paige captured the essence of summer white...and the essence of her child...a photo that my mind remembered for more than a year!

Thanks, Paige, for allowing me to share the inspiration and the picture.  And thanks, Caroline, for blessing my life with your beauty and sweet spirit!

just to let you know...

...I've got some trim packs up for sale in my PayPal storefront.

Head over to the creatologie blog to see a full view of the pack.

In shades of white (of course)!

Just wanted to say how much I've enjoyed all of the emails I've gotten over the weekend.  Love how you are covered in paint and spackle...so many of you mentioned that and I just laughed...I was definitely that way when I created mine, too.  In fact, the nails that looked like I had a French manicure...well, upon closer inspection, you would see that it was simply gesso! :))

sweet...

Yesterday, I took some much needed down time.  After doing the morning chores and sending out some kits that were just ordered (they are sold out, by the way, and thanks!), I met my cousin Karen at Merchant's Square, an antique mall in Chandler.  Karen and I have been trying to get together for months now and I'm so glad that she's a spontaneous person.  At 9:00 a.m., I sent her an email..."are you available for lunch today?"  At 9:15, she writes back that she is.  YAY.  She had never been to the antique mall and I was going there on a mission so we decided to meet up there before lunch.

What a fun time we had.  Booth after booth had us laughing about our family memories...a certain dish that either her mom or my mom had...things that our grandmother used to use...funky colors that we both incorporated in our homes when we were first married...we did a lot of laughing and it was good for both of us.

So, what was my mission?  I was looking for an old sugar bowl...but as Karen quickly found out, not just any sugar bowl.  I wanted it to look a little like a mini trophy cup, I didn't need a cover on it, I really didn't want to buy a set with a creamer and lastly, I wanted it to be cheap inexpensive.  Karen spotted a set in one of the booths and after checking the price, it was definitely mine.  Sugar and creamer, no lids, trophy cup style...all that for $5.00.  But, get this, when we went to check out, the lady told me that there was a 50% sale at that booth so the sugar and creamer set was just $2.50!  Definitely my lucky day.

Why did I want a sugar bowl?  For some time now, I've been looking to make a fun pin cushion for the hat pins and stick pins that I've been collecting.  I wanted something that would fit into my studio decor (oh wait, can any decor even be seen right now?), something I could quickly put together and something that would do a great job of showcasing the pins.

Earlier in the week, I had picked up a copy of Romantic Country Magazine (their latest issue) and there, tucked away in the back of the magazine was an idea for a pin cushion made from an old silver sugar bowl.  The article also suggested an old tea cup and saucer or a small garden urn.  Great ideas...and speaking of garden urn pin cushions, you can see a great one here...fun, isn't it?

They are so easy to make...I actually had mine done in minutes last evening.  Here's what to do.  Cut a piece of linen or other fabric approximately 8"x8".  Stuff the inside of a sugar bowl with batting.  Create a ball out of more batting and place it under the fabric.  Wrap the fabric around the batting to create a ball and shove it into the sugar bowl.  My piece was nice and tight so that I didn't even have to glue it in place (and that's good in case I get tired of the plain linen fabric I chose).  Tuck some vintage lace or trim into the top of the bowl in front of the fabric.  Tie vintage ribbon around the outside of the bowl and add pearls, rhinestones, buttons, etc.  Add your pins and voila!  You're done.  How  easy is that?

It was definitely a sweet Friday...reconnecting with family, a great vintage find, an awesome lunch at Crackers, some good down time and a new sweet pin cushion!

Any sweet things happening in your life right now?

fun, fun, fun!

  After I read what I wrote in yesterday's post, I realized that I made myself sound like a martyr...and that wasn't my intent at all.  I'm sure that all of you know that having a kit club isn't all glamour and that there's a lot of tedium associated with putting the kits together.  That being said, if I didn't love what I was doing, I would just stop doing it.  And, seeing how I'm already planning out July's project, obviously I love what I'm doing.

I wanted to mention what a great time I had teaching the white book class at Scrapbooks, Etc. on Friday.  It was an awesome group of women who very good naturedly dealt with the fact that the project was first designed for a kit and then later inserted into the calendar for a class...which, as those of you who order kits know...these projects usually take longer than a standard 3 hour class.  So, while it was really impossible to complete the project in the class time alloted, we did have fun playing with some of the class materials.  And, judging by the amount of paint on all of the placemats and tables, we were definitely getting into it in a big way.  I have to share a couple of snafus with you.  First, Ashley offered to make a cupcake cake (new pans from Wilton and Nordic Ware) for the class.  She had some major challenges baking it the night before due to the fact that it's baked in two parts and those parts don't bake to completion during the same time period.  So, she had to remove one part and then bake another but during the process the half baked portion fell out, which meant that the bottom part of the cake wasn't all that stable.  Early Friday morning, she got up and frosted the cake...white, of course :)...and decorated it with little white sprinkles.  She packed it carefully in a box and I took off for class. 

When I opened the box at the store, my heart just sank.  Her beautifully constructed cake was sitting on it's side with the top plastered against the box.  What to do?  I carefully removed it and did my best to reconstruct it but of course, I couldn't even get close.  I know that the cake and frosting were awesome tasting and I didn't want to waste her hard work so I shared my "ugly brownie" story with the class. 

Here's the story.  Years ago, when Ash was involved in showing her horse, we had a pot luck at the show.  One weekend, I made some Trader Joe's brownies and when I went to cut them, they fell apart and generally looked really ugly.  I decided that I needed to do a bang up sales job to get the kids to eat those brownies so came up with a little slogan which went like this...Carol's Ugly Brownies--they're ugly but ohhhhh sooooo gooooood!  The kids really got into it and went around the show grounds telling all of the adults.  Those ugly brownies became my trademark to the point where as soon as we arrived at a show, the little tykelets would run over to me and ask if I brought ugly brownies. 

So...adult women can buy the slogan as well as little kidlets...needless to say, by the time the class was over, we had a very small piece left.  So thanks, Ashley, for your persistence and thanks, ladies, for your gracious understanding.

Another funny happening was when I was packing up the die cuts for the kits, I omitted the "r" in two of the kits...this resulted in "celebate life" instead of "celebrate life".  Tee hee.  Bet you can just imagine how the conversation deteriorated... :)

Anyway, thanks ladies for your creativity, your laughter and your passion for what you do.  It was definitely FUN!

By the way, I saw this cactus blossom on one of my neighbor's cactii yesterday morning as I was out walking Bodie but didn't take the time to run over and photograph it.  This morning, I decided not to waste the opportunity and slipped over there while they were sleeping :)) and snapped a pic.  Gorgeous, isn't it?

Hope you have a blessed and fun Sunday.

no time for gazpacho :(

With our Phoenix daytimes temps consistently topping 110 this week, I've been craving cold soups, particularly gazpacho.

But, alas, due to performing mindless, but time consuming tasks today, I've had to come up with a quick and easy substitute for homemade gazpacho.  Enter one box of tomato/roasted red pepper soup, well-chilled, (available at Trader Joe's), one small tomato, chopped, 1/3 cucumber, peeled and chopped, and a dollop of plain yogurt.  Pour the cold soup in a bowl, add chopped veggies and finish off with a dollop of plain yogurt and voila, you've got soup!  While it doesn't quite match up to the real stuff, it's actually pretty good!

So what mindless things have I been doing?

For one, I've been tackling the massive piles of dirty laundry.  Is it possible for dirty laundry to breed?  It sure looks like it in my bathroom...it's not possible that the three of us went through so many clothes in less than a week.

The other has to do with white flowers...kit flowers.  Did you know that it's almost impossible to find bulk quantities of flat, plain white silk flowers about 2.5-3" in size?  They have either been discontinued or are on eternal backorder...take your pick, the result is the same.  I have no white silk flowers.  So, I've been painting ivory paper flowers white...the gesso queen strikes again!  If you knew how many I painted this morning, you would probably agree that I should be nominated for sainthood.  :))  Ah well...all for the cause of memory art and customer satisfaction.

Looks like the last of the flowers are dry...off to add them to one of the little goodie bags.

Hope you have a great weekend...hope you have time for some gazpacho!

just a spoonful of "sugar"

Every time I say or think those words, I have to finish that little song...you know..."just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down."

So today, I'm playing with spoonfuls of sugar...OK, not real sugar, but the kind we  all love...the glitter kind.  It's clear glass glitter and so much like sugar in appearance that I dare not leave it out for fear that Ashley will put it in her iced tea! :))

Putting spoonfuls of "sugar" into little baggies for kits really isn't a whole lot of fun...until I put it in the vintage sugar bowl and made a little game out of it.  So much like life...putting a new twist on an old chore...creating a beautiful environment in which to work...setting the stage for our minds, so to speak.  Isn't it fun how quickly the brain responds and says, "hey, this is fun and not work at all!".

Hope you have a spoonful of sugar in your day today!

I.N.S.P.I.R.E.D!

I have been waiting for just the right time  to share this news...it seems like there was so much going on...current events, classes and creatologie kit news to pass along...I didn't want this lost in the shuffle.

It is so exciting to share that I have been asked to teach at Donna Downey's fabulous art event called INSPIRED ARTIST WORKSHOP.  The event will take place May 7-9, 2009.   What an extraordinary way to spend Mother's Day weekend...at a retreat, creating with likeminded people!  Stay tuned to Donna's site for registration information.

I really love teaching...small classes are great for building relationships and large classes are fabulous for artistic motivation.  When I'm teaching larger groups, I just want to create something new, different and out of the box...I want to challenge myself...to spread my wings and fly into new territory.  My brain is busy...there's a cool project in the works...I'm the memory artist in the group so be prepared for some artsy scrapping!

It was a real honor to be asked to teach at this event...and the icing on the cake was hearing all of the positive feedback about the event from those who attended the first one:  Tena, who taught the memory art project, and Virginia class attendees Jeanette, Carol, Cameron, Lolly and Delores (I think there may have been a few more but the brain drew a blank).  They are planning to return...doesn't that say it all?

Stay tuned for upcoming info and project sneak peeks.  And, know what, it's never to early to ask for next year's Mother's Day gift!

sharing a few more pix...

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I had the opportunity to stay with Pam and her family in their lovely home but I really didn't expound much on that.

Here's a pic of me sitting on one of her fabulous feed bag covered wing chairs, sipping Cuban coffee and reading one of her books.  I have to be honest here...this pic is totally staged, which is why I have something resembling a grimace or a smirk (not sure which) on my face!  The reality is, though, that earlier that morning, I was sitting in the other chair, sipping the delicious Cuban coffee graciously made for me by her hubby each morning, and reading a book...a few quiet moments before needing to pack my bags and head to the airport.

Pam has a fabulous and oh so inspirational studio.  She converted her breakfast nook and large family room into the most amazing space...it just beckons you to come in, relax and create.  Check out her blog postings over the past few months...she's included little vignettes from her studio....be prepared to drool!

I also wanted to share one of the interior vignettes from The Beekeeper's Cottage.  In the spirit of celebrating white and The Many Faces of White album kit featured this month, it seemed only fitting (can you tell I've just come from the South) that I include this beautiful image on my blog.

The room made me want to sit and relax and just drink in the cool, restful beauty.

I have to tell you that I was a horrible memory keeper on Saturday during class time.  I completely forgot to take any pix...but I did make up for it on Sunday.  These pix definitely captured how into it the ladies were...they (and the Saturday group) were amazingly creative, fun and totally absorbed in what they were doing.  Sunday's class was really large and it was warm, OK, hot, in the room despite the air conditioner blowing constantly.  The heat and humidity were oppressive but the spirit in the class was great...focused and uncomplaining.  Thanks so much to all who attended...you were awesome.

I also wanted to say thanks to all who bought extra kits or signed up for an additional class...it was great to not have a single extra kit left!

I've been invited to come back next year...I'm really looking forward to it.  Thanks for letting me be a part of your life this weekend...can't wait to come back and play in 2009!

back home again...

I love to travel...love to go...but also love coming home.  I came home last evening after 5 fabulous days in Northern Virginia...spending time at Pam's lovely home...shopping and lunching with Pam, Kitty, Amy and Baby...visiting two amazing stores in Maryland (The Queen's Ink in Savage and Accessories of Old in Bethesda). 

But, let me start at the beginning.  I left my home at 5:15 Wednesday morning.  It was 68 degrees and sunny...a really beautiful morning.  I had a layover in Atlanta and while sitting at the gate waiting for my flight, I kept hearing the weather person on CNN repeating that they were expecting some serious storms and tornados in the Washington, D.C. area...the prediction was that they were to arrive around 5 p.m.  Well, guess who else was due in at 5?  Yep, my flight was due to land at just that time.

I figured they would delay our flight but much to my surprise, they boarded us on the plane.  I got myself settled in and started on my book only to hear the flight attendant say that she's sorry but she needs to give us a status report.  Hmmm, sorry and status report in the same sentence does not sound good...at all.  And, it wasn't.  We were asked to deplane and to wait in the gate area...another status report was to come in about an hour.  An hour later, we boarded again and after sitting and waiting for our turn, finally took off for Dulles.  We got to Virginia only to be told that we had to circle above Lynchburg for about a half hour.

We landed in Dulles to some clouds and some blue skies but after about 15 minutes on the tarmac, another horrific storm blew in.  If you were a fly on the wall, you would have heard the following conversations I had with Pam.

6:45 p.m...."Hi, Pam.  We've landed...but, for some reason, we're sitting on the tarmac."

Ten minutes later..."Hi Pam...still here.  Still not moving."

Ten more minutes..."Hi Pam...we moved.  But only about 100 yards and now we're sitting between two runways.  The lightning is pretty spectacular.  I can feel the plane swaying in the wind."

Twenty minutes later.  "Hi Pam.  Still here...not moving.  A plane that landed after us got to go to the gate before us.  What's with that...it is so NOT FAIR!"

Ten more minutes.  "Hi Pam.  The plane at our gate can't move...they aren't letting planes fly out of here right now.  So, still here."

Sometime later.  "Hi Pam.  I'm at the main terminal.  They brought a shuttle out to our plane since we can't move.  Heading to baggage claim."

Much later.  "Hi Pam.  I'm at baggage claim and the carousel is turning but nothing is coming out.  Will let you know once our bags come."

Nine fifteen p.m.  "Hi Pam.  Can you believe that I finally got my luggage?  I'll wait for you outside Door 5."

Poor Pam.  She had been sitting at a gas station 5 minutes away waiting to pick me up and watching the storms blowing in and out.  The patience of saint is what she had...for sure!

After dinner out, we headed to her house...which had no power but was charmingly lit by her son with little tea lights and candles.  Sometime during the night the power came on.  Whew!

We headed out to Maryland on Thursday and had the opportunity to visit with Patty (the owner) and Lolly at The Queen's Ink.  What a fabulous store.  We ended up spending quite a bit of time chatting with them and I'm happy to say that I'll be teaching there January 16-19, 2009!  How awesome is that?

It was also so cool that Patty asked Pam to teach two classes...one in August and one in September.  Way to go, Pam!

I love how the store is put together.  The displays are so artfully done and there are all sorts of unique products...very tempting ones, I must say.

Look at the view from the checkout counter.  Totally inspirational, I think!  I'm really looking forward to my 2 days of classes there in January.

The other great place we visited that day was Accessories of Old in Bethesda, MD.  What an amazing collection of vintage items, mostly produced in the 1930's and 40's. 

 Look at all of the carded buttons.  Truth be told, I wouldn't have minded getting one of each...but there's always the little thing called paying for them.  :))  And, due to their age and the lack of availability, they weren't like flea market bargains. 

Pam and I did pick up a few things and they are in my vintage wire basket right now.  I don't think I can bear to cut up the button cards so am planning to mat and frame them.

On Friday, Kitty and Amy joined us for some shopping and a wonderful lunch at Lightfoot Restaurant in Leesburg.  I love Leesburg.  There are so many cool shops, like Creme de la Creme, an awesome French store, English Country Manor, and, of course, The Cottage, one of my favorites.  We also headed over to Lucketts (sp?) and had a chance to check out the Beekeeper's Cottage as well as the large store on the corner.

Do you see the happy smiles?  If you want to know why, just check out Pam's blog and the picture she took of the back of her vehicle. :))

On Saturday and Sunday, I had the opportunity to teach three classes at Scrapbooks-Plus with some of the most amazing women.  They are awesome creators, play well with others :)), and made me feel totally at home.  Despite the heat, it was a fabulous time.

We ended the weekend with a girls' dessert at Pam's house...yum!

So, now you have the whole story.  A great time and great to be home.  There's a lot of work ahead of me this week.   BTW, thanks to all of you who have ordered a kit this month.  I'm woefully behind on acknowledging your orders but I promise, I will get to it!

it's white and it's delish!

  My mother-in-law, who is Canadian, often describes things she loves as "delish"!  When I was in Australia, I heard that used a lot, as well...maybe it's a British thing?

Years ago, if anyone had told me that I would love the color white (yes, it's technically not a color, but I still call it one :)), I would have told them that they were crazy.  White is sterile; white is boring.

That is, until I got hooked on cottage style decor and learned the secrets of working with white.

It was then, back in late 2006, that I created my first holiday white book.  The class was a huge success and I've been doing variations on the theme ever since.

When friend Valerie suggested that maybe I should do a series of white books as part of the monthly kits, I readily agreed.

So, here it is:  The Many Faces of White:  Summer.  Available for pre-order now; shipping June 24th.

Learn the secrets of working with white...create a beautiful album to fill with your precious summer memories...just click on the white book picture in the PayPal storefront on the right sidebar.  Then click "buy" and I will have your pre-order!  It's just that simple...and at the end of the month, the classroom will be on its way to your home.   Yummy whites delivered to your door...now that's what I call DELISH!

ETA:  I'm taking off bright and early tomorrow morning for Virginia for a weekend of classes at Scrapbooks-Plus, so if you do email me about the kit and I don't respond right away, it's not because I'm ignoring you.  I just got a new wireless card that should work really well at the airport...we'll see :).