Mail Art FunAll the goodies

Once again it has been over a month since my last entry but in that month I've received lots of art and done quite a bit too.  All of the art activity had to be balanced with family and friend time what with Father's Day and the Fourth of July happening. I had a lot of fun celebrating both of those events and it reminded me how lucky I am to have such a wonderful daddy and live in such an amazing country! Truman is now in San Diego enjoying Comic Con and I will be joining him in a few days to hang out in  Disneyland (so excited) after I visit with my cousin and hang out by the pool with a good friend for her birthday. I must enjoy this summer weather!
But before I leave I will be finishing the next pocket letter for my swap partner and hopefully doing lots of little art projects. I have to enjoy my solitary time right?! In the last month I received the first pocket letter from my swap partner and I LOVE it! She did vintage style and included really beautiful items! I also got my first aid secret sister package and she filled it with all kinds of goodies and in such a cute bag! Then there was one last swap I nearly forgot about because I had been so on top of it and sent it out way early! They were the themed Twinchies that were "Flapper/Jazz Babies", "Dictionary", and "Fairytale" I chose Alice In Wonderland. They were all so cool! Now I need to figure out what to do with them. And lets not forget the last pocket letters my sister and I did for each other! I decided we should so a music themed PL because I had found a cute pin that just fits perfectly for her. We decided to use each others song choices so it was more difficult than we thought but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the one my sister made me! I'll share some pictures below but I must be off to craft while I have no distractions!

Father's Day fun

Independence Day Party

Front of first pocket letter from my swap sister

The Goodies she included

First Aid SS swap fun

The front of the Music PL I did for my sister

All her goodies! The pin in the bottom left pocket spurred this idea!

The BEAUTIFUL journal my sister made for me!!!

The fantastic music PL my sister made for me!

All the goodies

The Flapper Twinchies, the one I made is on the top right

Dictionary Twinchies, the one I made is on bottom right

Fairytale Twinchies

These are the Twinchies I made for the others in the Fairytale group

Art Insanity

And now for part two! After my niece's birthday there was Mothers Day. As usual I like to make something for my mom with any gift I give her. This year I made her a little notebook and pen to go along with her gift. Truman and I got to enjoy a lovely lunch with her at one of her favorite restaurants. It was a perfect day for it too!
Since the retreat I had only partially unpacked and done more shopping to add to the mess! Seriously those pocket letters are addictive. I've collected some items for future PL's for my sister and decided to sign up for a 4 month PL swap along with the secret sister swap. Yeah I get in over my head a lot. Anyway I've actually managed to be very productive and make all the items and do all the shopping for the secret sister and the first PL swap. I also managed to make one of my best friends a birthday PL, which she has no idea of the wonders of yet. This burst of activity turned out to be a good thing because I have been sick for the past week and haven't had it in me to do too much. Soon I will be back behind schedule I'm sure :-)
And in case you're wondering I have been doing the occasional art journal page. I have a journal that is small and more personal that I have done some work in. I haven't gotten around to making too many larger pages but I hope to get back to that soon. But first I need to organize the mess that is this studio! Have a lovely Memorial Day!

Part of Mother's Day gift

Mama and I at Blue Willow

Most of the handmade items for the SS swap (it was themed First Aid kit)

Scrabble charm I made for first PL swap

The plaque I made for the SS swap with her favorite quote

Secret sister package is ready to ship

Front of first PL for swap

Some of the goodies I included

The tag I made for my friends birthday

The front of her surprise PL

Goodies

Wrapped and ready to go

One of my small art journal spreads

The picture is actually a door to hide journaling

The page I just did playing with transfers and stamps

Post Retreat Bliss

Okay so I didn't realize how long ago it was that I had posted so this will be the first of two posts, basically because it's embarrassing how many pictures I have! The retreat was an absolute blast! I wasn't super excited about where I was sitting but I had my friends around me so that's all I needed. I won a small prize and finished 6 pages. Not as high as I've done in the past but way better than last time! As always I was super sad that the weekend had to end but I already have something to look forward too, by the weekends end my sister and I had both purchased tickets to the October retreat! Happy birthday to me! We also got her best friend and my cousin to get their tickets so next October will be AMAZING! I'm already counting down the days!
Right before the retreat my sister had sent me a pocket letter which was a completely new idea to me. I instantly became obsessed and now have made a number of them! I'm having way too much fun with these little works of art! I also got back from the retreat and decided I just had to do the new Secret Sister swap and the Twinchies swap. I'll be waiting until the actual swap to show pictures of the Twinchies I made because it will be way more fun to show you them all at once.
Not long after the retreat my beautiful niece celebrated her first birthday! As usual I went over to my cousins the night before to help decorate and make the food. The theme was Alice In Wonderland and it was so much fun! She really was the sweetest birthday girl ever! Here's the first batch of pictures and I'll be back with a ton more!

Retreat goodies

First page done!

Next!

These pearls are good luck as I move on to pages 3 and 4!

Done!

Last page :-(

Close up

The birthday girl helping with her decorations

On the ladder per tradition

Birthday Bug!

The PL I made for my sister

The goodies

Uncle Truman with the twins the weekend they stayed over

Getting Excited....

Sorry it's been so long!  So much has been going on, I think :-)  My computer broke not too long after my last blog post and I got it back a couple of weeks ago and I'm still trying to figure some stuff out since it needed to be cleared and completely updated. Truman had to go to Oklahoma City for work at the start of March and I tagged along so that we could visit my family in Tulsa. It was SO nice to see everyone, do some shopping, and some sightseeing including the OKC bombing memorial. We flew into a snowstorm and drove down to Tulsa in some serious snow but the next day it was clear and the snow took no time at all to melt. On the day we were set to fly home another storm came in and grounded all the planes so we got to spend an extra day there. I enjoyed it reading some new art journal books by the fire at our hotel. I guess what my family says about Oklahoma is true, "if you don't like the weather just wait a minute".
We made it home safely and the next big thing was St. Patrick's Day. Since it was during the week the hubby and I just decided to go down to our nearest dive bar, which happens to be Irish, for a beer and a bit of food then head home early. Well we stayed later than we planned after meeting new friends and enjoying the live band. The following weekend we had a lovely brunch with friends. The restaurant had a bloody mary cart that was quite amazing.
This past weekend we headed up to Phoenix to spend time with friends for birthday celebrations and take a trip to IKEA where I got a great new chair for crafting and added a few extras to the utility cart my sister got me a few weeks ago! Best sister ever and she sent me an amazing gift that got me wanting to do pocket pages! This was a new revelation that was difficult considering I'm mostly packed for the scrapbook retreat this weekend, though it gave me good practice at memorizing where I had what in my bags.  And that is why I'm getting excited, though I'm not feeling very prepared or creative. I'm hoping that it changes as soon as I start to load up the truck with all my scrap stuff.  Well I'm off to finish packing and I hope you enjoy your week and upcoming weekend as much as I plan to!

Myself and my second cousins enjoying some great food in Broken Arrow

Super cute shop in OKC

The Survivor Tree at the memorial

Enjoying my new book on our "extra" day in OKC

My love and I on St. Patrick's Day

New friends

Brunch with friends

At the brunch place

New Raskog cart!!!!!!

Super amazing pocket page from my sister!!!!!!!!!!!!

A layout I forced myself to finish before I "allowed" myself to pack

My somewhat filled cart and new chair

The kitties new cat condo, they love it!