pamgarrison

since you seemed to like them...

more drawers for your viewing pleasure...

not a drawer, but a pretty spot...

and... having trouble finding those Whitman tins that I found at CVS/SAVON and Albertsons? You can get them here for even less!

McFab McFaydens

Look who flew into town! Teresa McFayden and her sweet, adorable daughter Ali. They came out so Teresa could teach at Sweet Peas and Snapshots both Saturday and Sunday, and to attend CHA as well. (Speaking of CHA, all you girls who attended Martha's speech, let us know how it was ok?)

Anyway, I picked them up at their hotel Friday and we went to Amy's to see her studio, which is where T found this party hat and put it on... perfect for the Queen of Foof, don't ya think? After grabbing Amy, we went to Somerset and then to Laguna Beach for lunch. As Teresa said on her blog, I think it's true love for her daughter... California, the beach,the weather, she sure fits in!

Also on her blog, Teresa mentions that her new book is coming soon... can't wait! Congratulations Teresa!

In other news:

the Whitman's tins were bought at CVS Drugstore

Maddy, I think you're groovy too and tried to email you back, but your email keeps bouncing

Yes, the vintage drawers are lined (man, that was painful!) with old paper from a French book, and yes, those few are organized, but NO! I am not organized! Just ask my friends and family...well, the strange thing about me is that yes, what makes it into it's home (like the drawers) is organized, but everything else is on my desk, the floor, an open chair, spot etc. and is very unorganized. I'm working on it. It definitely gets in the way of creating and I'm tired of living that way with my supplies.

camogirl- did you get my email? I need your address to send your token party favor.

ok, with that I'm off...have a good Monday!

on their way

To all the lucky winners from the blog birthday post; your party favor is on it's way! As promised, it's one of my vintage wallpaper packs. (Yes! I will, I really really will make some for sale soon.) Each one has a little Moo card tied on too.

And for the second set of 10 winners, your tiny "token" party favors are on their way as well. For those that were not lucky this time, I thought you'd like to at least see what they got, I know I would. They have a very small envelope with wallpaper scraps (and I do mean scraps) and one of those pretty Whitman's samplers. I am going to be so sad when they stop making these blue "Wynnewood Package Replicas", not only are they too cute, but handy as well. I think they'd make a great home for Moo cards. Can you tell? I'm still really into the Moo cards. I think that everyone that makes some seems pleased too.  ...ok, "my" time's up for today, more soon.

wanna see my drawers?

some of the drawers in my studio that is. ...  Both my kids have been home sick this week so the studio clean up is even slower than usual. I did take some photos of a couple drawers for you though. Well, the first photo is not a drawer and is pre-clean up, but I love that jar (Alameda flea trip) and all the goodies inside it. Here are a couple clean drawers:

They're all drawers from this cabinet that I talked about in this previous post. Hopefully, I'll have some more drawers ready for their close-up soon.

things that might interest you too

I have been meaning to show you the things I ordered from The Paper Princess. Aren't these personalized bookplates cute? While I was at it, I also ordered these things that you see in the next photo. The matchbooks are tiny notepads. (Edited: there is no paper inside the matchbooks, they are blank and you can make a note inside or tie on a gift) So much creativity out there with all these indie businesses!

Speaking of indie businesses, I wanted to congratulate Hope of Paper Relics for being the Daily Candy (click on Los Angeles to see the article) of the day in LA. I was so excited for her when I opened up my email. You do know about Daily Candy, don't you? It's a little email you can get specific to the city of your choosing that points out "what's hot, new and undiscovered". They might have one for the big city near you. (Edited: there is also a Daily Candy "Everywhere")

And Melissa(links to website) announced (links to blog) a subscription of her Erraticus Zine. When I ordered my subscription there were still some of the special Holiday back issues available as well.

I love to support little indie businesses, thought you might too.

visual inspiration

I'm trying ever so slowly to clean my art room. I want a new studio. No, I need a new studio. I'm going to make that happen this year. Some way, somehow. I feel like I am not able to create fully because of the mess and disorganization I have currently going on. So late last night I began a little bit of sorting through things. These two pages (torn out of Country Living I think) are very inspiring to me. Especially the one with the blue beads. When I first saw that page I fell madly in love with it. The colors!! Love the color combination.

It's not so much the colors (although there is that same blue in the plate) on the other page, something about the shape of the bundled flowers with the plate and the book.

Just looking at these gave me the little bit of inspiration I needed to begin a little assignment of sorts. At the top you see a glimpse. Here are two more, from two different pieces of art.

Most often, it just takes beginning, or finding a tiny inspiration to begin the beginning that unravels my creativity. I'm finishing up the pieces today and sending them off tomorrow. If they don't get used, I'll post the entire pieces here so you can see. Not even sure that I can put my finger on how the two magazine pages are related to these, but it's there, none the less. I, for one, can never get enough visual stimulation. Hope your Sunday is full of inspiration, whatever sort you love.

the results are in

the vintage wallpaper pack winners:

and the tiny favor winners:

I'm sorry everyone couldn't win something. I really really appreciate the blog birthday wishes. I will email the winners tomorrow to get mailing addresses. Again, thanks for coming to the party everyone, you made it very special.

holy moly!

WOW! Thanks for all the blog lovin'. You sure do know how to make a girl (and her blog) feel great! Now I'm really glad I jumped in the blog world. I can not tell you how nice it is for me to be understood and appreciated for sharing myself, my style of creativity. Blogs are such a wonderful way for us all to find our peeps and it seems I have found mine...right back at ya with all the sweet words! Thank you for each and every comment, you showered me with love and I am grateful.

Lest you think it all went to my head and I was lounging around demanding my family feed me grapes and fan me with palm fronds, I'll share this photo with you... keepin' it real in the Garrison household. No one in my house even reads my blog. (And honestly, I kind of like it that way.) Last night was business as usual. Since my son broke his leg, showers are out of the question so we wash his hair in the sink. Here I am in the midst of that after just having done the dishes, which is why the cabinet is open. (I have been known to leave a cabinet or two open on occasion, I have no idea why, but my Dad does it too so I blame it on him).

My friend Amy will scold me for showing yet another unflattering photo of myself, but I thought you'd appreciate the gray roots and general plain jane-ness that my daughter snapped last night. (But don't you love my old metal and glass pie safe? At Christmas it had ornaments in it...currently it's empty)...

As for the banner instructions, I took a piece of large paper (12x16) and glued a bunch of wallpaper scraps down (and sewed one scrap while sewing on the trim). Then I watercolored a cake on top, gluing on a candle that I rolled in clear glitter. I wrote the letters free hand with white glue (Elmer's seems to have a nice small opening on their bottles) and covered that in fine silver glitter. That's pretty much it. If you have a question about something I forgot to include, ask away.

As for the giveaway...man, oh man! I wish I could give everyone a favor. I'm still going to pull 10 names and give them the vintage paper packs, but I am also going to pull an additional 10 for another  small little favor. Tonight I'll write down all the names to have ready for the kiddos tomorrow. They are excited about their job. A million thanks for coming to the party! 

hot diggity blog giggity

Today is my blogs birthday. HapPy BirTHdAy little blog! I can't believe it was just a year ago that I finally took the leap into blog-land after hemming and hawing about it for many months. I don't know what the big deal was now, but I'm glad I chose to try it. It's been a positive experience for me. How in the world would I get to meet all of you otherwise? In honor of the blog, I crafted today, making a little birthday banner (you see a close up above). See? The blog definitely spurs me on to create more too.

It's hard to see, but it says Happy Birthday in silver glitter at the bottom. By the blog's birthday next year it will be wonderfully tarnished. Hm, maybe I'll add a little something to the banner each year... who knows.

In order to celebrate, I thought we'd throw a little party. If you can make it (by leaving a comment on this post), I'll put your name in a hat and have my kids pick 10 party participants next week. If your name is picked, you'll receive a party favor,(a vintage paper pack) as a treat!

As always, thanks for stopping by. It wouldn't be much fun without you.

home files

I have always loved houses and home and decorating. As a little girl I remember loving to go look at model homes with my Mom, always dreaming of my own home when I was an adult. I also remember pestering my Dad endlessly to paint my room/move my furniture make this or that. They were pretty good sports about it all, once my Mom even painted a huge mural on my bedroom wall (a primary colored rainbow-just about the last thing I'd want now, can't even remember loving rainbows but I must have).  Even in college, I was into decorating whatever apartment I was living in and buying home magazines. Starting way back then I began tearing out pages, saving the ideas for my future home.

Of course, that continues to this day, the tearing out/ piling up/ (somtimes) filing of pages. But now I do something else as well. When there is something I like that is not part of an article or whole page picture that I want to keep, I cut just that item out and add it to my collection of smaller  images. I took a file folder, stamped HOME on a vintage lable and put some music and ledger pages inside. I just cut and glue the photos down in any random order, filling page after page. Once all the pages were full, I taped another ledger page to the existing so now some pages are actually 4 pages when fully opened.It's so fun to cut and paste pretty small images, adding to the book at various times.  I love looking at the images and getting a feeling for where I am now, what my desired style is. If I someday worked with a decorator I could just hand the book over, letting the images do most of the describing for me. It's sort of like my home inspiration board.

And thanks for all the MOO love. Still love those cards. Glued a bunch down in my journal last night. Going to order more to include as a business card next time I sell something. Can't wait to make some next Christmas for gift tags, hm... maybe I'll even sell them as holiday tags next year...or we could all trade some, ah, the possibilities are endless. But seriously, I really don't know what I'm doing. If you go to the link I listed in the post below, you'll know as much as I do. I do assume that you have to have a flickr account, and that you can only print your own photos, otherwise I'd imagine huge copyright issues. The good news about me not knowing much about it is that if I can do it, you can too!  Moooooo.

thank you & xox

No surgery needed! Thanks for all the kind wishes for our boy. So thrilled that we are continuing on with the healing thus far (one week down, 7 to go they say) and don't have to start the clock over. Dugan was very happy to read all the comments and I was thrilled to be able to trick him into some reading minutes. He's all over the multiplication and division... reading, not so much. Twenty minutes of reading per day can be tough, but thanks to you all today's minutes were a breeze. oxo Let's celebrate with a picture or two, shall we?

After reading this over at Yvestown, I ordered myself some Moo cards. They came today and I love them!! I also love her comment "...now I want to marry Flickr  if that's possible". I love funny, creative people.

Back to the cards. Not sure if you can really tell, but these cards are about 1"x2 3/4". So small and so cute. 100 cards chosen from my own Flickr pictures for $19.99. On the back I printed my name so that I can use them as business cards, or gift tie ons etc. I used all different photos as you can see.

The back of the box reads:

Hello, we're MOO and we love to print.

We also love the planet, so our goal is to have as little impact on the environment as possible, and every effort is made to act responsible in our manufacturing processes.

Just so you know, this box is recyclable and so are your cards, which were made using paper that is sourced from sustainable forests. Isn't that nice.

I like funny companies too. And, I must say, along with Yvonne, I do love Flickr, although I hardly know how to do much or even remember to go there. But look, here are some of my favorite Flickr photos posted by other people. And here are a few more. Flickr is indeed a good thing. Like blogs, so much inspiration  to be had. Going to spend more time over there this year, posting photos, collecting more favorites, finding more inspiration. I'll probably make some more MOO cards too...

boo hoo re: the boo boo

Hi blog world! Sorry I've been away so long. The photo at right is my explanation. Our little one BROKE HIS LEG (what?!? are you kidding me? he broke his arm just last year, this can't become a regular thing, please, no!) He was riding the new bike that Santa brought him last weekend. Currently we are waiting for the Dr. to read his MRI to determine whether he also tore a ligament and needs surgery (again PLEASE, no!)...and, oh yeah, the MRI? that was fun too...here's the phone conversation while making that appointment:

MRI person:  Will he be able to sit still for an hour and a half without moving anything but his eyeballs?

Me: um, he's a 7 year old boy, sitting still is not really his gift

MRI: well, that's what is required

Me: ok then, yeah, i'm sure it'll be no problem (crossing my fingers behind my back)

In actuality, it wasn't a problem...instead of trying to keep him still, my challenge was trying to keep him awake, too much twitching when one sleeps... ah, motherhood...so many opportunities for growth.

So my poor buddy finally went to school this morning. As long as all goes well, I should be back to activities other than nursing my boy next week.

Thanks for all the Happy New Year and Holiday Wishes. Hope it was wonderful for all of you. Looking forward to another year in blogland. xo p