One World One Heart Giveaway!

Hey Kids! It's here....the One World One Heart Blogging event! My name is Melissa and I'm a speech-language pathologist by day and a mixed media artist by nights and weekends. I've been creating things as long as I can remember. My mom is pretty crafty so I guess that's where I got my need to sew, glue, cut and tear apart things! My husband is great because he understands this need to sew, glue, cut and tear apart stuff! Life is good when I'm sewing, glueing, cutting and tearing apart stuff!

This is my give away for the event. It measures about 7 inches high and is truly a mixed media piece with a little bit of everything incorporated into it.....stamping, Photoshopping, collage, stitching. So to have a chance to win it (the drawing is on Feb 15th). Just leave a comment!

I don't know why but in January and Feb., every year, I like to do some handsewing and stitiching. It seems like I'm forever hunting for a needle. I use to stick them in the hem of my curtains (my mom told me that my gram did the same thing!) but after seeing so many cute needle books on different blogs (here's a stunning one that Shelly O made), I was inspired. Mine are pretty simple compared to others. They are about 5 inches tall and 7 inches wide when opened out with 3 felt pages to keep the needles in.

I really like this dark charcoal grey with the red and aqua.....really pops!
The inside.....
Ok, now this little bugger I'm quite smitten with! It's .......wait for it.......................................

an owlPad!!!! LOL!!!! It's a sleeve I made out of felt for my iPad. If you have one you know how slippery those little devils can be to old. I actually have a hard case for it but I also needed a sleeve for it too.

I put a big pocket on the front to keep the charging cord in. I also lined the top flap. I have to tell you, I love my iPad. If you have one, you know what I'm talking about. I've become one of those Apple converts!
Alrighty then....saved the best for last. Yesterday afternoon I was Skyping with Tracy and her daughter was making eclairs so she gave me the recipe and this was the result. Pure puffy, sweet heaven!
Thanks for stopping by and stay warm!

Frigid January Crafting

Since January has been extremely frigid, I've been staying inside and crafting. Too cold to snowshoe or even walk outside for a short distance. Today is was 11 degrees with a windchill of zero! Yes, I said zero. This cold is really starting to give me "SD"....snow depression!

This piece is entitle "Serendipitiy". I've always liked the sound of that word. It's defined as "the faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident. Sometimes when I'm making art I stumble upon a bit of serendipity also known as happy little accidents in my case!

This piece is truly a mixed-media pieces as I created the fairy with Photoshop, hand sewed and embroidered the heart, and stamped and glued the heart background. It's going to be my giveaway for the One World One Heart blog hop in February.

I did some green crafting on this baby. This was the box that my Flip camera came in. It was such a well made and sturdy box that I saved it to use later. The recess made a perfect little recess to collage in. I created the girl in Photoshop. The elements used were from Tangie Baxter's collection at Scrapbook Graphics.

Ahhhh, she looks so sad. She probably didn't get a Valentine from the one person she really wanted one from!

Ok, so the last thing I'm showing today is a new spin on the traditional snowman. I got old German book text in a swap last year I participated in and tucked it away using pieces here and there. I came across it the other day and glued it onto a round piece of 1/8 inch bass wood. Painted on the face with acrylic paint and glued decorative paper for the hat. I'm pleased with how it turned out.

I'd like to make more snowmen with different languages. If anybody has French, Italian, German or any other languages of old book text I'd like to trade you some decorative papers for it!

Hey if you're looking for some interesting music, try Pink Martini. It's sort of a 1030s Gypsy Jazz meets old school Cuban dance club.

Stay warm!

Mr. Chocolate

Still "Frittering", extreme "Twittering".

Four words per sentence.

Just for January.

It's driving me crazy!

Mr. Chocolate.

Ready for the close-up!

Say "cheese".

He's going to Jacque.

Life is like a.......

You know the rest.

Kindness matters, right?

Smiles-

Melissa

Snow Angel

The finished Snow Angel!

Carries a magic bag......

Flaps her vintage wings.....

Flies through frosty air......

Sculpted with paperclay.

Painted fabric body.

Tulle skirt.

Fiber scarf.

Velvet band.

Vintage rhinestone snowflake.

Chipboard wings.

Opps! Forgot the halo!

Needs a name?

Studio Happenings.....

Work In Progress........ HeartGuy

He'll live with Jacque!

Look Ma! No eyes!

Crushed by wings! ARRRGGGHHHH!

Snow Angel teaser.....

Stop back tomorrow.

She'll be completed then.

:-) M

Pastel Glittermen

Making pastel glittermen ornies.....

quirky men of snow.........

with glittery funky hats......

1940s inspired eyeballs.....

Pink/blue wintery dreams......

Goodnight, sleep tight glittermen!

Happy New Year!

Well, all the decorations are down, the house has been cleaned as well as my studio and I feel like I'm starting the new year well organized, which is a good feeling. I'm approaching 2011 with a minimalist attitude. I redesigned the blog to make it easier to leave a comment, took away the music and cleaned up the sidebar content.

For the month of January, I'm going to do a little experiment..... I call it "frittering", it's extreme Twittering. I can only use 4 words to talk about a picture I post. I call it "frittering" because I'm going to try not to fritter away a lot of time this year!

Thank you to all the followers and visitors who have stopped by the Honey Girl Studio to check out what has been going on this year. I appreciate your comments and enjoy reading them! I see I'm at 200 followers (I'm a dork and inadvertently became a follower of my own blog as I was screwing around with the dashboard settings and now I don't know how to remove myself!) so the 201st person to become a follower is going to get a little art surprise sent to them!

So let me start my Frittering now by leaving you with these words......

Happy New Year!

:-) M

2 Birthdays...One Day!

Today is not only my birthday but also my dad's birthday! He turned 80 today and I turned 44. Here we are pretending to take a big bite out of the cake (chocolate with whipped cream frosting....yummy!)We always celebrate our birthdays together, it makes the day double-special for both of us!

Thinking Pink!

Hey friends! I finally got my studio cleaned up and now I'm feeling much more creative. I was talking with my crafting BFF, Tracey yesterday and we've decided to use up what we have and look at our materials in different ways. Sometimes we get stuck into one mindset so I'm going to try different techniques, colors and assemblages this year.I bought a bag of wooden turnings and blocks the other day and pulled a wooden knob out of the mix. I turned it this way and that way and the word "mushroom" poof! popped into my head. That's how this little ornament was created. I usually don't work in pinks but I thought it might be fun to try to create a line of pink ornies.
In the bag were these wooden turnings, they measure about 1.5 inches tall. I painted them white, painted a simple face and then commenced to glittering them up! I also made tiny pink felt hats and glittered them up too.
The little wooden bowl was in the bag too so I painted it and then filled it up with my men, folded antique sheet music, bells, glittery balls and pink & white candy canes. I glued a little snowflake onto the bottom of the bowl.
BRRRRR, it's still very cold here. Stay warm wherever you are!

Merry Christmas

I'm wishing all my friends out in blogland a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you to all of the people who check in every now and then and leave such lovely comments.

Smiles-

Melissa

Holiday Dudes!

You know when somebody asks me how long it takes to make something I give the patented answer "oh, about 20 minutes". I always give that answer because in my mind I think or really believe that it will only take 20 minutes, however that is not always the case.

These are the Holiday Dudes that I've been working on for.........no, not 20 minutes, but rather 3 days. Yes my friends, I said 3 DAYS!!!! Unbelievable, they look simple but there are so many steps to make one. I made 13.

If you follow my blog you will notice that they look just like the big Holiday Dude I made about a month ago. I think they are stinkin cute but gosh if I was going to sell them I'd have to charge at least $229.99 each!

I've named them.....here we have Spice, Sugar and Mocha.

I call them "Holiday Dudes" because they really aren't snowmen and they really aren't gingerbread men either. Any suggestions? What would you call them?

The Holiday Dudes got all wild and crazy, lit up on egg nog and took a tear around the living room chasing each other and ended up on the wreath. They all started badgering me to take a picture of them!

After I took their picture, I gave them another cup of egg nog spiked with Nyquil and tucked them into a bowl for the night. Nighty-night Holiday Dudes!

This little guy is going out tomorrow to Gina over at Home Girl Shop! I also have a trio going to my crafting BFF, Tracey.

Have a Cool Yule!

Snowshoeing,fudge eating and popcorn making......

As most of you know, I really can't stand winter, but living in Western Pennsylvania where we are on the edge of the snowbelt, I've learned to embrace it and in doing so I enjoy snowshoeing. Saturday was a perfect day for Buddy the Wonder Dog and I to go on our first of the winter season snowshoeing trek! I went to my mom and dad's farm where I take their dog Buddy with me.We set off across the field heading toward the woods but it was the last day of deer season and I thought we'd better stick to the fields.

The snow sparkled like millions of diamonds in the sun.

The trick to snowshoeing in a cut cornfield is to stay between the rows. When I cut across the rows I have all the grace of a water buffalo in a ballet! Just look at the remarkable blue sky!

So I got back inside, warmed up and had just a little bit of fudge. I love fudge and my mom makes the best! It's smooth, creamy and oh so chocolaty.

My niece Andrea came over to my mom and dads' on Saturday too. She thinks I'm crazy because I make up Christmas songs and make her sing them along with me. That's ok, everybody needs a "crazy aunt" in their lives.

My great-niece, Riley was there too. She's pretty funny, we kind of have the same sense of humor. She was looking at her grandpa while he was talking to her like, "you are so full of crap grandpa Jeff" but didn't say a word to him, she just had that sly smile on her face. I think that Riley thinks I'm goofy too, but that's ok, everybody needs a "crazy great aunt" in their lives!

Nanny (my mom) and I whipped up a batch of "Freda Popcorn". What you ask is "Freda Popcorn?" Well, about 18 years ago I worked at a hospital as a speech pathologist and I had a sweet little lady who had a stroke and I saw once a week for outpatient therapy and her name was Freda. She was an awesome cook and would always bring me new recipes. She gave me this carmel popcorn recipe which my mom and I make almost every Christmas.

Freda Carmel Popcorn Recipe

pop 12 cups of popcorn and set aside in a big roaster

In a heavy sauce pan melt 2 sticks of butter, stir in 2 cups of light brown sugar and 1/2 cup of light Karo corn syrup and bring to a boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

Take off the heat and stir in 1 tsp of baking soda and one tablespoon of vanilla.

Pour over the popcorn in the roaster and mix until it's coated.

Bake at 250 for 30 minutes, stirring ever 10 minutes.

Store in an air tight container. The girls had a good Saturday!

Popcorn update: I came home from work today and stuffed almost half a gallon bag of it down my throat! It's addictive!!!!! YUM!