This 'n that ~

Hello sweet friends ~ I have a couple of images that I scanned for you.

The sweetest little girl and a beautiful scenery card

Maybe you can use them in some way!

After the mammogram yesterday, I felt the need to drop by Michael's for just a moment to see what was on sale. I love their clearance bins and found the sweetest wren eggs, coasters that I plan on turning into something completely different (not sure what yet!), a spool of pretty colored ribbon and I just love these papers!! They are only 8 x 8 but I loved the patterns. The lightest ones were only .15 each ~ You gotta love good deals!

I hope you have a wonderful Friday!! xxoo, Dawn

Lunch & a little shopping

Today was such a nice day. I went to visit my sweet friend, Dawn. She asked me to take a few photos of her in her office so she could email one to Georgia Trend magazine. They're writing a story about her! How cool is that? I'm so excited for her winning Small Business Person of the Year for Georgia. She'll soon be going to the White House for a big celebration!

After I left Dawn, I stopped by a wonderful antique mall, From Out of the Past Antiques. I love to dig around for treasures when I visit and I did not leave empty-handed!! Neat little goodies just ready for a new life!!

Don't you just love these wonderful sepia-toned French postcards?!

Finally ready to go ~

I've finally realized that I am truly "slow as molasses in winter!" I wanted to package up these little guys nicely so I made some little bag toppers today and folded them over the cellophane bags, punched a couple of holes and fed hemp through to tie. It kind of gives them a professional look, don't you think? I'm sure everyone that ordered these just wishes that I would quit playing around and ship them! I promise, Wednesday they all go out priority mail!!

And a special order from a new sweet friend in Iowa, Vikki ~ I do hope you like it!!! Your own thought book very soon to be on it's way to you, dear ~

I hope the week's treating you well. I've been trying to be really productive. I usually can't hardly take it when someone says this on their blog but I'm actually working on a special little item to be featured in a particular publication and I can't divulge what it is right now, but as soon as I can, I will . . .

It's not a large thing at all but I'm still so very excited.

Spring Blessings in Georgia ~

It's finally here! The trees are filled with green buds and this tree below happens to be our little peach tree ~ Do you need more glimpses of Spring? Kari & Kijsa are having a Spring Blessings party on their blog and all who have listed their names are featuring Spring goodness on their blogs!

Can you see the little bee in the center below? He's been busy!!

Here's lil' Ellie ~ trying to see if there's a squirrel around that might need running up a tree! She's on the leash so they're safe for now ~

Change is good, right?

Today was my last day at The Plum Tree. My son Noah and I went this afternoon to pick up all that was left in my little room. I still have a few screen doors that wouldn't fit in my car but for the most part, we were able to get it all. I feel good about my decision to do this. I still love shopping there and Cindy and I are such good friends. I have great respect for her and her fabulous taste!
The store just keeps getting better and better ~

Today was Cindy's birthday and I made her a little piece of artwork and wanted to share it with you. A gathering of forgotten items, combined, seem to turn into something special!! Happy Birthday, dear Cindy ~ much love and happiness to you and I wish you many, many more!

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Remember these plaster type eggs that I found a week or so ago? Well, I've got to get busy getting them all dolled up!! Today I stopped by Michaels, had my trusty coupon and they were having a really good sale so I found these little treasures to embellish them with. We'll see how they turn out ~ if you don't see them again here, you'll know they didn't look so good!

Can you believe these little flowers are made of clay?? The leaves are silk . . . I found these in the wedding/tiny little flower section ~

Don't know about that orange fuzzy ribbon!! I think I'll be saving that for Halloween ~

I finally realized that I have a macro setting on my new camera from Christmas . . . so now I want to take closeups of everything!

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Please note: I've just lowered the price of this Easter artwork to 22.00 ~ it's coming fast!!

See the sparklies?? The rhinestone button looks better in the photo above, it really is very sparkly ~ click on any photo to enlarge.

I'm working on my tag orders right now and will start my big ol' Easter eggs tomorrow . . . we'll see how they turn out!! I hope you all are doing well and beginning to see the first signs of spring like we are here in Georgia!

I'm really not a secret agent . . .

I sounded a little like I think I'm one in that last post, having a "special assignment". The truth is (I spoke about it the first of the year and it's fine if I tell a little bit) that I submitted artwork to Somerset Life earlier this month and am now writing the article to accompany it! Hopefully it will appear in the Summer issue. I'm already excited about the Spring issue coming out. There's only four a year ~

This truly is not just a magazine. If you've not bought an issue yet, you've really missed out. It's a little more expensive than your typical magazine but I look at it more as a paperback book. There are so many wonderful ideas in these that you'll want to refer to them over and over!

I've worked a lot today on my article, trying to make it not sound too terribly corny and also to not sound like I talk, which is hard because I am who I am, a hick from Georgia! We'll see, maybe they have a great proofreader and will make me sound intelligent and polished!!

This mini composition book is all I could get finished today as I am trying to finish up the article. These little things are the neatest size. I think about 3 1/2" x 4" or so. Perfect to slip into your purse and use to jot down an idea, reminder or special thought. That's why I like to call them "Thought Books". I should have it listed in my Etsy store sometime tomorrow. If you'd like to see the books and other items I have for sale, you can click here to visit my Ecrater store!

See how small this notebook is? I used a little paint bottle as a visual reference for you!

Wishing you a wonderful day ~

Sweet friends & finds ~

Friday I was feeling a little blue. I don't know if it was the gloomy Georgia weather (I see a pattern here) or just me and my wonderful hormones, but I just felt a little sad. The boys have been out of school all week and Noah had been invited to go to the Circus in Atlanta with Dennis' mother and sister and all her grandchildren (he had such a fun time!) and Chase was working with his oldest brother Brad. I was home alone but glad the boys had something good to occupy their time. It was Friday, I needed to get busy but just didn't feel up to it.

The phone rang and it was my sweet friend, Dawn (my friend with the soap business). She and our friend Judy invited me out to an early dinner. I jumped at the chance! My husband said he'd be fine so I headed out the door to meet them!

They are such sweeties. Judy and Dawn had dropped by a couple of thrift stores Friday looking for goodies for my artwork! They both keep up with my blog and kind of know the things that I love to create with and well, while we were eating our dinner, they proceeded to give me several wonderful thrifted goodies!!

The amazing little ironstone plates in the photos and a sweet little bird picture and a tiny little Tracy Porter book full of the most wonderful quotes and sayings. I love those you know. I want my artwork to "say" something. I imagine I could just use the images but the words add so much more dimension.

We had a wonderful dinner together. Afterwards we stopped by Ross and Marshall's and found THE MOST AMAZING little eggs for my nests!!! I'll have to speckle them myself but aren't the colors beautiful?

We had a great time together. Thank you both so much sweet friends for thinking of me, you really did make my day!

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

Marcel Proust

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Today, my husband and I got out for awhile and enjoyed the day together. We stopped at a few stores. I found the most precious puzzle! Have you heard of the children's book, Guess How Much I Love You? It truly is so precious. Well, I found a puzzle by the same name! I'm going to add it to my little shoppe soon if you'd like to purchase it!

And I found the most amazing eggs, speckled and everything!! I want to adorn them for Easter and sell them as well. Eggs are definitely on my mind right now!

We stopped at a new Mellow Mushroom restaurant and had a slice of the most heavenly pizza. I caught a photo of the guy behind the counter tossing the dough!! And these pendant lights were just beautiful!

I wanted to add more items to my shoppe but haven't slowed down enough to. I've decided that I will sell my art in my Etsy store and my little antiques, books and treasured finds in my eCrater store ~ I'll see how things go that way!

I do hope that you're having a wonderful weekend ~ enjoy your days, hug those you love . . .