pamgarrison

handmade holiday boutique

 

cute badge curtesy of Heather Bullard

 

My friends Jenny Doh, Amy Hanna and I are putting together a little Handmade Holiday Boutique that will be held at Studio Crescendoh on December 15th. Here's the flyer for it:

Hope that those of you that are relatively local will be able to join us!

We'll all be showing some sneak peeks of the new goods on our blogs, like these paintings I'm working on:

 

And Jenny has been making art like these:

And Amy has some new jewels coming:

And hey, did you see that Amy was a featured artist on One Kings Lane? Congratulations Amy, that's super cool!

Well, hopefully, those peeks wet your whistle, I'll be showing you more here on the blog over the next 2 weeks before the sale!

thanksgiving recap

Hope those of you that live in the States had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend! We had a very relaxing and enjoyable holiday. Here are some of the few photos I captured (thank goodness for my phone, I swear, I hardly pick up my big camera anymore).

The best part of Thanksgiving every year is having our family in town and a house full of guests. There's nothing like cousin time on special holidays! 

My daughter was totally into cooking this year, even more than last, and she basically took over all the planning and head chef duties. The day before, she corralled the kids and made those cute acorns you see all over pinterest:

I can't tell you how pleased I am that she is finally uses pinterest. After all my attempts at explaining why she would like it fell on deaf ears, her college dorm mates convinced her. (Of course, right?) She also pre-scooped the ice cream for the pie thanks to pinterest. :

She didn't seem to mind bossing me around too much:

And truthfully, I didn't mind it either, I love making pies (we made one pumpkin and 2 apple), and frankly, she did such an awesome job it was easy to give up control! 

My neices went through an entire pad of art paper, making various signs and things like leaves and acorns to decorate the house (like in the first photo- you can see they loved my paper crimper too). 

I can't tell you how much I love art made by kids! Love it! And look at those cute arrows, makes an arrow obsessed Aunt proud. Look at the faces and directional arms...and that squirrel! 

As I mentioned when I posted this on my instagram, they were clearly fixated on the "asind seeting" ...{their mom explained to me that although they are twins, they are in separate classrooms and one has a teacher that is very focused on spelling correctly, the other does not, so one asks her mom for correct spelling...of course, I find the incorrect spelling so charming.}

Not too long before serving dinner, I popped in the dining room to do something and saw one of my nieces, ready and waiting at her place. How cute is that?!?

I was so glad she let me take her photo, and it didn't take long for her sister to find her:

It does make me sad that my brothers live in Nor Cal and my family and my Dad live in So Cal. When I look at these pictures, I miss being able to participate in each others' lives on a regular basis. I'd love to babysit (which would most likely mean them chasing my son around the house for much of the time, just like cousins do!)

Thanks to my daughter, we enjoyed a lovely feast, and our friend Gillian, who is English, informed us that the correct way to open party crackers is with the help of a friend, not all by yourself, like we'd been doing. In case you are the type to have holiday party crackers, now you know the proper English way too.  

I'm happy to report that thanks to the signage, everyone was able to not only find their way to the dining room, but also to their correct seating! There were a couple very pleased 7 year olds. I will save my "Ant Pam" placecard forever. 

After dinner there was the general lolling about, dish washing, pie baking, and apparently some ipad-ing too.

And just like every year, some dear friends stop by and we do even more lolling about, eating, visiting and always big group game playing. We seriously need Catch Phrase to come out with a new edition of replacement discs, we've been through the same words year after year. Luckily, we adults are forgetful, and the kids grow so much from year to year that they relate to the words differently each time, so, so far, so good. 

The firepit is a favorite place to gather and hang out. I've still got to get the rocks to cover the ring (we all can't agree- some what glass marbles, some want sand and natural stone, I'll let you guess who wants what). But finished or not, everyone loves the fire pit- it's mesmerizing, and comfy, and perfect for s'more making and general stretching out the evening and the fun times. The new furniture around it and my sparkly shoes from TJMaxx were both big hits as well. Although, in all honesty, even though the shoes were flat, they did hurt my feet by the end of the night...a case of you get what you pay for maybe? 

 

And then it was time to love on Papa and say goodnight. 

The next day was more of the same, sans the big meal, without all the guests. More relaxing, more games, more eating and drinking, visiting and dishes, and walks to the park to play basketball and run (especially after cousins).  No shopping, no working, no homework: a true "stay-cation" as they say, and it was thoroughly enjoyed by all. 

marbled goods

I wanted to share with you a great source for marbled papers, the etsy shop of Heidi Finley, named Marbled Goods. I first ordered from Heidi a year or so ago, and was so pleased with the beautiful papers she makes herself. 

This past summer, Heidi very generously donated papers for a journaling class I was teaching. 

Always unique, always beautiful, now she's doing some new pieces on antique papers like antique dictionary pages. They were too beautiful for me to resist:

Yep, I placed another order. One of my favorite products she lists is her scrap papers. To know me is to know I love scraps! Big bang for your buck.

Just wanted to pass along an etsy shop with an awesome product and super sweet owner. In case you are a fellow paper lover...

playing catch up

I've returned home from teaching and am shocked to realize it's mid November already! As you can see from this photo taken in my living room moments ago, we are still living in October. {Darling pumpkins by my super sweet friend Mary Stanley} I seriously need to catch up. The fact that  organization and scheduling don't come naturally to me leaves me feeling constantly behind and I hate that feeling. I worked on it hard this year, but it seems teaching an old dog new tricks takes awhile. I have big hopes for continued improvement in 2014!

So...even though I returned home from teaching at Spellbound late Sunday, I still have much to unpack:

Everything is still in the living room where my son and husband put it after unloading the car for me. I did start to unpack my finds from the Rose Bowl flea market, which was part of the Spellbound event (gotta love a craft weekend that ends with a flea market!) Here's an IG taken when entering late Sunday morning:

It's always fun to revisit what you bought once home:

So there's unpacking, and the laundry of course. Added to the trip laundry are the guest towels I ran in and bought yesterday after dropping my son at baseball.

We've got a house full of guests coming next week and towels were on the list. Heather turned me onto these on sale at Cost Plus, in case any of you have company coming too and like them. Much less than the Anthropologie version, although in all honesty, I think Anthro's are prettier and thicker, but I'm sure my brothers won't notice. Thanks for the tip Heather, {and by the way, love the new Souvenir issue!}, you can see a free preview here. 

But before I completely unpack and recap the event for you, I've had to get on a stitching assignment I'm behind on. To show you some snipets of the work in progress, I had to move the belt I made in Amy's class (that I sadly forgot to pack-argh!. Another frustrating result of disorganization.) I am still madly in love with it and still can't wait to make another.

Here's what it was hiding though, some of my gathered materials for the stitching project:

My notes:

A bit of inspiration found in an old crochet sampler book:

A fresh start:

And a work in progress IG:

And now, since it's almost time for my son to come home and I'm still in my pajamas, I've got to shower and get at least a quick trip to the grocery store in! Where does the day go?!? Hopefully, you are managing your time better than I am today! More tomorrow I hope...

Nov 12, 2012- Happy Veteran's Day

Thank you to all those that serve or have served our country, and the loved ones of those in our military for their sacrifices as well, especially the spouses and children. I thought I'd share a photo of my brother, CAPT C.R. Dugan, call sign Max (remember that movie? 'Max Dugan Returns' ? That's where the name came from I hear), a Navy fighter pilot. He was in the military long before he had his girls, my nieces Molly and Caitlin, but serving must have become more meaningful for him as a father, especially when seeing them celebrate our country. They are so cute, aren't they? May they always have the freedoms and rights that those that this day honors serve/served to provide. Something else to be thankfull for in November.

Souvenir holiday issue around the corner

Just around the corner from the holiday issue of Souvenir, Heather's Lifesyle publication. I had fun with Amy and Heather doing a little party themed article for this issue and am ready to start the holiday season with more fun ideas. If you want to be on the mailing list to be notified when it launches, go here. And see some behind the scenes from various contributors here. It will be released next Monday, November 11th in both digital and print formats.

Ready or not, the holidays are heading our way!

carving stamps and making printables

As these instagrams show, I've been having lots of fun carving stamps lately. I'm pretty sure that I showed you the new clear stamps for sale that were made from either carved stamps, or illustrations, didn't I?

These are all available in my stamp shop now. Many were designed with either art journaling or Project Life in mind, as I plan to take that on come January. Thinking about how I'm going to do Project Life, (because you know I like to try and put my own spin on things), I decided that I wanted some printables from my own stamp designs. Journaling cards that I could download and print to use however I see fit.

So, the next time Sarah came to tutor me in Photoshop and everything else tech, we got right to it. It's so fun, the ideas are endless and I only wish I had more open computer creating time, (and the ability to remember what she teaches me). So far we have made 3 downloadable pdf sheets (printables) from my hand carved stamps:

See, here you can see the stamp (upper right, pink), the inked print from stamp that we scanned in black to the left of it, and the pdf (all the colored versions) that was made from it:

Here are some of the cards cut out of the page inserted into a Project Life protector sheet (think baseball card storage page). Testing them out...

I really can't wait to start using them everywhere, from journaling to notes, and everthing else.

Like this:

Had to try one of my stamps on it, naturally ;).

After two sessions spent working on them (nothing is as easy or fast as I want it to be when it comes to me and computers!),  we paused on the creating new designs part to  make a little shop so you can use them too if you so desire. Look for this link in my sidebar:

It will take you right to the downloadable pdfs. Super simple. 

Next batch will have to include the new number set I carved:

and the big scallop you see here too:

Can't wait for my next tutor time -{what I wouldn't give to hear my son say that about his geometry tutor, I guess as adults we get to be tutored in what really interests us and that makes all the difference}, until then, I imagine I'll be carving away...maybe some holiday designs are in order...

 

election day 2012!!!

Well, I voted via early mail in ballot, which was super easy, but today, on election day, I feel a little disconnected from the whole hoopla of the day. Which is good and bad I guess. After all, who isn't sick of all of it, no matter who you want in the oval office?!? I just saw for the first time the video of the little one crying because she was sick to death of hearing about it non stop. Abigael will be very happy tomorrow, no matter what! I think most can relate. No matter what your politics, I hope you are sure to get your vote on!!!

what i've been making recently

Here's an IG of the belt I made in Amy's class at Studio Crescendoh this weekend. It was so fun and I can not wait to make more! Here's another instagram of it before it was completed, but dangerously close:

And here are photos of it:

And look what Amy had as an example...genius!

Yep, she made a strap for her camera! Awesome, right?

She also had bags and bracelets for inspiration and for sale:

I failed to get pictures while there, but you can go to Jenny's blog and see more about the class. Everyone made really cool things. Thanks a lot Amy, for a new obsession, haha, no, but really, for sharing your genius. Hope she teaches it again so more of you can take it!