Meet Abner!

Meet Abner........in a mitten. He's sweet little 3 inch tall mouse made of felted wool tucked into a hand knit mitten with Christmas cheer spilling out all over! The mitten measures 6 inches from the cuff to the bottom. It measures 12 inches long from the top of the hanger to the bottom of the mitten. If you'd like to give Abner a home, you can visit him at the Jingle All The Way Home Shop.

Meet Chester!

First, I'd like to thanks all of my friends in Blogland that sent me well wishes on my B-day yesterday! You all made my day!

Second, have you met Chester? He's a wool felted mouse that measures about 3 inches high. He has black glass bead eyes and a pink glass bead nose.

I think he's on his girlfriend's house to give her a heart and a balloon!
He even has a pink curly tail!

He's available over at the Very Vintage Valentines Shop!

Happy Birthday!

This morning I woke up to 15 degree weather! Brrrrrrrr! Forty-three years ago it was icy and sleeting. I rolled over and said to my husband, "boy, I wish the birthday fairy would bring me Duncan Donuts coffee" and about an hour later after he surprised me with a delicious steaming cup! He's so sweet.

This was taken 40 years ago! Yes, I had the Captain Kangaroo haircut!!!!

Today! Lines around my eyes, lines and grooves in my cheeks.....at least they're laugh lines and I hope they always will be!

What makes this day really special is that it's not only my birthday but also my dad's birthday! We always celebrate together. I remember one year, my Gram made a two layered round birthday cake for us when I was about 5 years old. Half of it was decorated with little plastic ballerinas and pink frosting and the other half was decorated with little plastic cowboys and blue frosting. I turned the cake so that I had the cowboys and he had the ballerinas! I wanted nothing to do with them!
This picture was taken in June on Father's Day. My dad always says I was the best birthday present he ever got but then he adds that I've been the most expensive too! LOL!

Dad went and bought a cake for us. I brought him a cherry pie.....his favorite!

I think my dad looks pretty good for being 79 years young! By the way, he's standing on his tip-toes in this picture. :-) What a nice birthday we had!

sNoW AdViSorY!

First I'd like to thank my friend Tracey for making me this beautiful banner for my blog. She is a very talented artist who just started a blog and you can visit it here.

Looks like there is a big, nasty snowstorm coming my way! There's a winter weather advisory in effect starting tonight..... 3 to 5 inches of the white stuff. After I take down the Christmas decorations, I put out my snowman collection so that had me inspired to create a new snowguy.

Hey Snowman, you funny guy!

Made with snowflakes that fall from the sky!

The little guy below is my Russian snowman named Alexander. I say he's Russian because of his little hat, it reminds me of a Russian hat. His hat and pants were hand sewn from charcoal gray felt. The pom-poms were made with 100% wool yarn (if you want directions on how to make them see the previous post). His face was created by sewing on 2 different sizes of glass beads. The scarf is an upcycled, cut from a felted wool sweater and embellished with an antique shell button. His nose was shaped out of paperclay.

I love this little snowman lantern he's holding. I bought a package of white bells for 75% off at that craft store yesterday, not really having a plan of what to do with them when inspiration hit me last night and ta-da! I think it would make a sweet little pendant too.

He's holding a sparkly felt snowflake, ready to spread it around tonight.....did I mention there's a winter advisory for my area? The trim I used for a belt around his pants is pretty cool. It's kind of like elastic with ribbon weaved through it.

This is an altered CD ornament I made for, yes....you guessed it, my cousin. I covered a CD with gel medium and then decorative papers on the front and back and added a vintage picture, glitter, marker, gel pen and rhinestones.

Ok I'm off to make more Russian snow guys! I want to try different hats and trims. If you have a suggestion for a unique kind of trim or hat I can make out of felt please let me know with a comment.

Sunday Again?

Whoaaaa! Did today seem like Sunday? And yesterday seemed like Sunday to me as well! And tomorrow is Sunday......it's like the movie "Ground Hog Day"!

The weather was beautiful today for it being the day after Christmas in Northwestern Pennsylvania......40 degrees and sunny. Gary and I took a ride to Pymatuning Lake in the afternoon. I love the color of icy water and with pretty swirling patterns in the winter.

Even though it was 40 degrees, it was pretty windy and you got cold really fast standing out by the water. Here Gary is giving me the "fake and I'm cold" smile. Yes, I was cold too!

The sunlight looked like a silvery path across the ice. See that grove of tall pine trees? It's a little island. I wish Gary and I could live there all summer long, wouldn't that be cool?!?!? Just hanging out crafting and boating and Gary could fish.

Seagulls in the foreground, tons of Canadian geese in the background!

Hmmmmm, what's going on in the studio? Looks like a little pair of pants with a belt that only Elvis would wear?

Handmade pom poms created from wool yarn. To get the dense, tight pom pom shape, I wet them in hot water then put them in a mesh bag and popped them in the dryer with a load of towels until they were dry. It fluffs the out and makes the fibers tight.
The beginning of a snowman or dog?

Somebody has been drinking a lot of iced tea! I'm working on a little project with the caps, they make a great bezel.

I like to lay stuff out around them and in them in order to get inspiration to see what I can create with them.

Hope you had a great Sunday.....er.....I mean Saturday!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my friends in Blogland! I'm wishing you a joyful Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Happy New Year!
Smiles-
Melissa

Christmas Misc....

Spent the first day of my Christmas vacation in my jammies working in my studio until almost noon which is quite an anomaly because I never stay in my jammies unless I'm ill! I finished up this little guy....he's known as "The Christmas Duck". Every year I make an ornament for my niece, A.J., sometimes they're mainstream but most of the time they're bizarre, like this duck. Of course who hasn't heard of the pink Christmas Duck?!?? He's handmade from the pipe cleaner armature to the handmade pom-pom head. I also created this collage today for a "Dream" swap hosted by Marsha over at Amusing Muses. The only stipulation for the collage was that it had to by 6.5 by 4.5 inches and you had to interpret the word "dream".

Here's the story on this collage: Simone carried the ticket to her dreams with her everywhere, just in case she encountered the green dream door, which when opened would lead to the realization to all of her dreams. I think we're all searching for that door at one time or another.

This collage was created with 41 different pieces of hand cut papers. I used Twinkling H2Os to paint a page of German book text red. I love how you can get a deep rich red color without covering up the text. The door behind Simone is a Stampers Anonymous stamp. I created the legs and the boots are Doc Martins.

Now onward to something I find pretty funny. My friend Tracey (we met over at Flickr and found out we live about an hour from each other) is into making altered art and we had a little Christmas swap. She sent me a note pad and this was written on top of it.

I think we all have similar wish lists! I find the $100,000 gift certificate hilarious. How funny would it be to go into Hobby Lobby, sidel up to the counter with a brief case of money and say "I'd like gift certificate for $100,000 please". Could you imagine the look on the clerk's face!?!?
Ha!

Ok, so who has all their shopping done? Well, I don't......so that's what I'll be doing tomorrow!

It Snowed! It Snowed!

We didn't get wacked like the East coast (thank goodness) but it did snow Friday night.....

Snow! A great segway into the new music discovery I found the other day on iTunes. Her name is Meaghan Smith. I think I've found a new favorite Christmas song by her that's called, "It Snowed". You can click here to go to her website and then click on "It Snowed" to listen to it. Let me know what you think of her.

MY SUNDAY ADVENTURES.........

I went to my mom and dad's place this afternoon to make pizzelles and to take Buddy (their Aussie shepard) for a walk. He's insanely in love with snow! I, on the other hand....not so much! But, you might as well enjoy it because you know it's going to be here awhile! I swear he was smiling as we were walking back to the woods.

Buddy has to stick his nose into every hole in the ground he finds.....

Typical winter sky of northwestern, PA.....

Frozen pond.....

I love taking pictures of trees, especially during during the winter. Nature's art at it's best.

The sun kept breaking throught the clouds making a dazzling diamond display on the snow.

Only about 4.5 inches. Not bad to have made it to almost Christmas and this be the first snowfall.

No birdies today. Buddy and I scared them away I guess. Buddy hates birds and tries to chase them.

It's amost here............... ho,ho,ho!

Pizzelles might very well be my favorite Christmas cookie. I have this old electric iron that was my aunt's that makes the thinnest, crispiest pizzelles you've every tasted. They melt in your mouth and cause your brain to smile and say "I need another....and another....and another". Mom and I made a batch of almond and a batch of vanilla. I accidentally dropped my camera on one bag of them and now Gary and I are eating pizzelle nibblets!


Finishing up Christmas gifts.......custom dog tags for Riley and Garrett. I've still got a lot to do but I'm not worried, it will all come together.

So, what did you do today?

I love claymation and especially the Christmas specials. Who doesn't love Rudolph?!?! This is one of my favorite claymation songs from the Claymation Christmas DVD. This is one of best renditions of "We Three Kings". Those camels are too funny! Don't forget to turn off the Christmas music before you play the video.

Green Bough.....Singing Bird

Keep a green bough in your heart and the singing bird will come.

This 5 by 7 collage was created with elements from the Green Bough Collage Sheet which you can find and download for free here. Or you can purchase a 5 by 7 print over at Jingle All The Way Home! The snow was made with color core cardstock which was torn and to give it the blue edges then sanded to let some of the blue show through the white. The pine bough was hand painted as well as her legs. Snowflakes were created with a paper punch. I really enjoyed working in this pallet of red, black, white and grey. Some days it's hard to keep a green bough in your heart. I'm a big believer in Karma and I know if you put enough good out there, good will come back to you and eventually the singing bird will come.

Hope you had a good weekend! Have a great Monday!
Smiles-
M

A Study of Red and Green......

While my favorite Christmas colors are aqua and red together I can also appreciate the traditional colors of red and green. Rarely at any other time of the year will you find red and green together so let's enjoy it while we can! I started today with imbibing my chocolate craving with red and green M&Ms. Then I rearranged my antique plastic Santa collection with a collaged background of red and green.......Tonight I used some elements from the Collage Sheet from the previous post to create this red and green postcard.

She knew how to be good......but.......... there was the coffee drinking, the brawls on the playground and the cheating on her math tests.......but then again, hey nobody's perfect! Just remember Santa is aways watching!

I made these little snowpeople last year.......

Ok, that's my tribute to Red and Green! Hope you enjoyed it.

One last thing.....today I went to a new bead shop that opened in downtown Greenville, Pa It's called "Let It Bead" and has quite the array of beads. The owner, Kris is very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. If you're in the area stop by and check it out.

One more last thing.....no really just one more...... pop on over the Cathie Holman's website to win one of her terrific calendars.