It's Here!

It's here! It's here! My favorite magazine, Where Women Create! And it's fabulous as always! Filled to the brim with lots of eye candy and inspiration! This magazine never disappoints.

As always there are fabulous artists in it like Mary Engelbreit and oh so many others!

Nicol Sayre (one of my absolute faves!) is in there and what a beautiful studio she has! Such treasures and inspiraton!

Ruth Rae an absolutely fabulous artist and another fave is also in this issue and Ruth has a super cool studio filled with sooo many fun things to create and play with!

Joanna Figueroa another great artist is also in this issue. Joanna is actually fairly new to me and that's another thing I love about Where Women Create is that I can meet artists that I'm not familiar with or don't know much about and learn about them and their works.

When I first picked it up I went immediately to Nicol and Ruth's pages and drooled over them and then quickly flipped through oohing and ahhing the others, not knowing where to start! I'm now waiting for the drool to dry, so I can read the rest of the magazine!

Heirloom Party

Marie over at Emma Calls Me Mama is having an Heirloom Party, so I thought I'd join in the fun and post a few family pieces.

This first one is actually a friend and a family heirloom. I have 2 of these glass baskets---the other one sits in the matching cabinet right next to this one. One basket is from my mother and the other basket is from my grandmother--Grandma Long. I love these baskets and they always sit in a special place of honor.

The little teddy bear is what I call a friend heirloom and he was handmade by my dear friend Donna Balfanz. One of these days--in the far off future--I will hand him down to my youngest daughter. He also always gets a special place of honor.

This little cottage piece is one of my favorites and was handed down to me from my other grandmother--Grandma Juanita. It's always so special to have something to remember your grandma's by.

The rocking chair is a piece that my folks have had for many, many years and actually belongs to my brother, but I get to babysit it for him. Hopefully he'll forget it's his or that I have it. hehehee!

Roy Rogers here is actually a cookie jar that belongs to the husband, that came to him through my folks--sort of. The husband always loved Roy and so did my brother, so mom never could decide who to give him to. And in our family we often tease my folks that we have our "Post It Note" on a certain thing(s). And the husband and brother always teased each other about who would end up with Roy. Well it ended up that my brother got him, which was quite alright, however he decided that he really needed to give him to the husband, so one time while we were visiting him, he surprised the husband by giving him Roy. All the way home ( a 3 hour drive) I heard over and over how he just could not believe that the brother had given him Roy. He was tickled pink and he still is!

Well that's just a few heirlooms that I thought I'd share this time, so if you'd like to see more please don't forget to stop by Marie's and see everyone's heirlooms or maybe post yours for us to see.

Blog Events Dex Open Again

The time has come the time is now. I have re-opened Blog Events Dex! If you have a Blog Event that you would like to share with Blogland or if you know of someone having a Blog Event be sure to share all of the fun with everyone and list it at Blog Events Dex. It's fun, easy and free! If you'd like to help spread the word please visit Blog Events Dex and grab a button for your blog or you may grab it right up there at the top of this post. Don't be square--we hope to see you there!

A View Of Where I Live

I thought I'd share a few photos of where I live. We live outside of town on a quiet country road, yet not too far from town. And if you peek out past the garages outside you can even see the tips of the Tetons Mountains on a clear day. We had a beautiful double rainbow the other night, so I snapped a few pics, but could only get the one in the frame.

"Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ. --Ether 2:12

The dinner bell.....

The merry go round and a view into the pasture.....

One of the 2 rainbows.....

Sunset and a view of the church steeple where we attend church.......

The girls--Mrytle, Mildred and Wilma--- who won't sit still long enough to pose for their pictures.......

The windmill that sits out front at the corner of the yard. This is where the water works are for the pump, so we can water the yard when the irrigation canals fill up.......

The play area of the back yard--the merry go round, ferris wheel (the bucket seats are in storage), big slide, little slide and swings are just out of view and the wooden big people swing next to the little people tire swing.

Hay that was just bailed days before.....

Boomer the dog--who thinks he's a person......

And our beloved little donkey Dixie.

Show Us Your Life--Wedding Dresses

Kelly of Kelly's Korner is hosting---Show Us Your Life--Wedding Dresses, so I thought I'd join in too.

Below is a photo of me in my wedding dress November 28th, 1981 in Neosho, Mo. And below that is one of the handsome groom too and yes we're still married--27 years.

There's still time to go to Kelly's and add your dress too and don't forget to look at all of the other dresses too.

Where Bloggers Create Blog Party--Come On In!

Welcome to the Where Bloggers Create Party hosted by Karen Valentine of My Desert Cottage.
Many of you have seen my sewing room, but some have not and so I've decided to show you pictures from my last 3 sewing rooms and my current sewing room. It all has the same stuff for the most part (it does seem to keep growing however), but set up in different rooms. So come along.........

This was my sewing room when we lived in Florida. It was in the front of the house in what was a sitting room......

My sewing room when we first moved back to Idaho. This one was a rather small, cramped office, but it worked.

And this is my favorite sewing room in our last house. It was in the basement, so I had plenty of room to spread out.

A view of one of the work areas.....

The corner with my little Singer Spartan machine. A great machine to use.....

Betty and Mae's corner......

And now for the entrance to my sewing room in the house we are currently living in. Sorry for the mess, but this shot was when were still unpacking. However I still haven't uppacked my room this time totally. We are only here in this house for a short time and I just can't seem to get my room together.....

My current sewing room is again in the basement--the best place--that is if it's a finished basement. It has lots of barn wood, which I do like and if I can ever get it put together it would be offset with lots of shabby cottage, old linens, laces, roses etc......

Where I store part of my fabric......

A corner....this is where my drafting table is, for cutting, planning and such.....

And a few favorite corners......I love using cake stands, because they are not only great for decor, but they expand my storage surface. I have 3 cake plates on the hutch in my sewing room.....

Top part of the hutch in my sewing room. I picked this up in Florida at a thrift shop for 40.00 and it gives me lots of display area as well as storage with drawers below......

Just a few favorite pieces.....

...and a few more.......

I hope you enjoyed your tour of my sewing rooms and don't forget to click on the banner at the top of the post, so you can tour all of the other wonderful places that bloggers create.

Trying Out A New Look

As you can probably see I'm trying out a new look. I think the center may be too white or bright and needs to be a soft shade of color--I think. What do you think? Since you are the reader, is it too white/bright or is it ok? The template comes in another color HERE, but I wasn't sure if that was too dark. Please let me know what you think. I love both of these, but just can't decide--ya know change is hard. LOL! I can keep looking. Hmmm...decisions, decisions.....

Don't Be Late!

Oh no I almost missed this! But thanks to Margaret at The French Bear, she clued me in. Thank you Margaret. Tomorrow Karen Valentine of My Desert Cottage is having a blog party! It's a Where Women Create Blog Party, so dust off your creative spaces and join in. Believe me I will be having a very busy day getting my room ready. Hope to see you all there!

Organizing Ribbons

I ran across a cool way to organize your ribbons and thought I'd give it a try. The video below really has some great ideas and I played off of one of theirs. I have a glass frog--remember the one I used for my scissors holder-- I took it and placed it on an old jar and then ran my sheer ribbon ends through the frog holes and placed the ribbons inside the jar. Now all I have to do is pull up a ribbon end and snip off what I need and not grumble as I pull it out of a tangled mess in my ribbon drawer. And it's prettier too!

I think I'll try one of their box ideas too, because the boxes could stack and I wouldn't a hundred jars.

The Art of Germaine Bouret

I recently discovered the art of Germaine Bouret. Her art is so sweet and has such a wonderful innocence to it. Germaine is a french artist that was popular during the 20's and 30's. Here's a sampling of her work that I hope you enjoy as much as I have.......

3 New Dresses

While I was in Misssouri taking care of my mom after she had open heart surgery my dad celebrated his 70th birthday--mom ended up spending both of their birthdays in the hospital this year.

The morning of my dad's birthday he comes into her hospital room and told me he wanted to take me to show me what he wanted for his birthday, so I'm thinking it'll either be a herd of goats or a farm tractor--two of his favorite things. But before we leave mom looks at me and says in that mother voice--Cathy Lynn ( yup, that's when you know you better listen), I want you to go and do as your father tells you and don't give him any trouble. Hmmmm....I haven't heard that since I was a kid and I was a very good kid! LOL! So I'm thinking oh boy that must mean I not only get to look at goats and tractors I get to trapse through the fields with all the bugs and cockleburrs too.

So off we go....driving through downtown Joplin....coming up to Joann's Fabrics and he said we weren't going there....hadn't even crossed my mind, because he had just announced we were going to Radio Shack. Well Radio Shack does not have goats or tractors and he's a little behind on todays electronics---I'm still waiting on them both to get email addys--so we pull into the parking lot, walk across to the Radio Shack and then go right past the Radio Shack and into the ladies dress shop--Catherine's. Hmmmm....he is getting old! LOL! Then he says ok let's pick out some dresses! Now that is a surprise, because these dresses are for me! And it's his birthday. Much better than a goat or a tractor! So we find a handful of dresses and I go to try them on and off he goes and he keeps the dresses coming. Now this is a man who does not clothes shop, has no clue about women's clothing or the way we shop and when he finds a shirt or pants that he likes buy 5 exactly alike of each, so they last him forever. But he did really well at finding dresses and these are the 3 that I chose.......................................

A beautiful purple textured dress--that does not wrinkle! No need for that new iron. LOL! I love how it drapes and the feel of the fabric.

A pink jacket with big, square black buttons and a flippy, silky black and pink skirt..... I love pink!

And my very favorite is the electric green dress! The camera just doesn't pick up it's true color, but it is gorgeous and I'm hoping to find some electric green shoes to go with it. Again I love the texture, the layers and how it drapes.

So for a goat and tractor excursion I was truly and delightfully surprised! I LOVE my new dresses! Oh and I guess now I know why my mom said I was to behave. LOL!

Irons--What I Had, Have & Want

Ironing--rather boring don't you think (but I do love this vintage photo!). While it may be no fun to do, it's even less fun to wear wrinkledy clothes and I am an ironer and my poor old iron finally died.

See it just came apart at the seams and I have no idea how. I didn't do it and no one in the house is fessing up to it. Hmm.......

So what's a girl to do?........

Well I did have a few other irons.......

...nothing special, but this old travel iron won't do. It has no steam and gets really, really hot, so it would probably scorch my clothes! And besides it's doing decorating duty......

....Then there's my itty bitty, barely 4 inches long really cool little iron that I use for quilting. It's great for quilting, but just how long would it take to iron an entire blouse or dress?.........

...or there's my little Clover quilting iron with the nifty changeable heads, but that would really never do! I would be better off tossing my wrinkled clothes into the dryer and baking them wrinkle free........

...and then there's this.....the Proctor Silex $16.00 iron that came home with me from Big Lots. It will do. It's big enough, it gets hot, but not too hot and it has steam and multiple settings. Good for a cheapy iron that will probably last a year or two if I'm lucky, but I'm not complaining---til it dies right in the middle of ironing my favorite dress!..................

AND then! There is This! The Black & Decker F63E! This is what I want! I had one just like it that my mother gave to me in 1981 as a bridal shower gift and I used it a good 20 years or more before it gave out and went to iron heaven. Nope it's not fancy. It's not a Rowenta, but it's a good, solid, heavy duty, working iron that lasts and lasts the way an iron should. Yup, this is what I want. See I really am a simple girl. LOL!