A slice of life & returning to the studio!

Soooooo.....it's been kind of a long time since my last post here.

I don't know what to tell you except that life happened!

(Warning: TONS OF PHOTOS in this one!)

With Christmas, then sickness, then watching Clara and Murray

waiting on their new little sister to be born, then Tilly's birth and 

a huge soap order during all of that....

I'm finally coming up for air!

It really has been a busy couple of months around here.

And guess what???

February 11th was my ELEVENTH blog anniversary!

YES!

I've had this ol' blog now for eleven years ~

Even though blogging has changed over the past few years

I still enjoy having it and love sharing what's going on in my life!

December and January were filled with

multiple OB visits for our daughter-in-law Emily

so I watched these precious grandbabies, Clara and Murray, pretty regularly.

They are so techie now...both loving their tablets.

But we'd watch movies, bake cookies and even have a few craft days!

And then Tilly was born January 25th!!!

These sweet kids were SO EXCITED to head to the hospital

the next day to meet their baby sister!

Daddy Brent (our oldest son) admiring his precious little daughter Tilly!

It's truly been a wonderful time in all of our lives!

She's now almost 4 weeks old and growing like a little weed!

And speaking of growing...

our second born son, David

and his wife Heather's son and our grandson,

Owen is now one year old!!!

His birthday was Christmas eve and he's so precious ~

so happy and loving too!

And now I've finally made it back into the studio!

I've been cleaning and straightening up

which always helps get me motivated to create.

I decided to finish up a book project

that I'd started months and months ago.

This is my very first handmade book/journal!

I created the signatures, embellished the pages and

even sewed them each into my handmade book cover.

It's nature inspired (my favorite) and filled the pages

with pressed flowers, ephemera and images from nature.

Here's a peek inside!!!

It's now been added to my Etsy store as well ~

SO...there you go!!!!

I've got to make more of these!!!

Maybe with different themes even.

If you'd like, I've created my own YouTube channel and you can

view 3 very short videos of my flip through the journal!

~ HERE'S THE LINK TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL ~

And lastly...

Our grandbaby Tilly this past week!

She's just beautiful and growing so very fast.

Four grandbabies now,

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?

Each one is precious in their own little way too.

Sorry for the gigantic photo filled post but it's been awhile.

And thank you always for stopping by to see

what's going on in my little corner of the world!

Hugs and love,

Dawn

A whimsical fairy house ~

A few weeks ago I was commissioned by a dear friend of mine

to transform a simple night light into a woodland fairy house!

Creating these is so much fun because you can gather elements

from your yard and even buy some neat things at craft stores.

The house started off solid white with some type of sheer fabric

glued into the openings to soften the small light that inserts into the back.

I removed it all.

The sheer material was backed with acetate I imagine for safety's sake

with their being a bulb inside.

Next I spray painted a dark brown to have a more woodsy background.

Then I found an amazing image online of the inside of a fairy house

someone had made, sized it appropriately and printed it out onto vellum.

I also had acetate sheets and cut them to size for each opening as well.

After I glued all the sheets on each window it was time for embellishing!

What I started with:

After it had been spray painted and images glued inside ~

You can see my stash of supplies I had to pull from!

The first thing I worked on was the moss around the base of the roof.

Next I made a "stone" fireplace using little pebbles and moss as well.

I had this incredible thick paper with straw and fibers that I used to cover the sides.

This added such a great contrast to the dark brown!

I cut sticks to wedge onto each corner and then

continued to add feathers, moss and small woodcuts around the base.

The finished fairy house ~

I so hope my customer is pleased and

I think I may need to make more of these!!!

Thank you always for stopping by to see what I'm up to!!!

Hugs and love,

Dawn

Hello November!!!

It seems that this time of year ALWAYS gets my creative juices flowing!

The cooler temperatures and the changing of the seasons

makes my mind spin with all kinds of ideas.

Here are a few of the things that I've made lately.

It seems all of them are under glass for some reason!

Please be sure to check my Etsy store as a few things have

been listed in there and some of these items have already sold.

Does fall inspire you to create too???

Two altered apothecary jars with French labels

and other pretty embellishments!

This one is in my shop!!!

These have all sold but I just LOVED making these bird-inspired jars.

Nests, eggs and pieces of nature all captured under glass ~

And lastly, I've been making ornaments using 6" glass test tubes!

They are approximately 1" in diameter. I've added glitter snow,

a tiny bottle brush tree and other goodies to make a pretty Christmas ornament.

They can hang on a knob or on the Christmas tree!

And of course, loving natural elements, I had to try to make a few botanical test tubes.

They are my very favorites! I love drying flowers and other greenery

so I've made little gatherings for each test tube.

These have all been added to my Etsy store ~

It's so nice to be able to use the things that you've been gathering and collecting.

I have dried flowers everywhere, stems from pretty bushes,

feathers and other fragments of nature to use.

But it seems when you place them under glass

it gives them a special kind of importance!

Thank you always for stopping by to see what I'm doing and

I hope that I can inspire you to make something beautiful ~

hugs and love,

Dawn