I love doing these altered dolls. Too cute and pretty easy.  This doll is going to my friend "Lovely Linda" for her birthday, a little late, but you know the old saying, "better late that than never".(Shhhhhh don't tell her its coming.) There are so many things that you can add to the body,which is just a clunky block of wood. That makes these dolls so exciting and fun to make. This one is in the celestial theme.

Hope you like this and thanks for stopping by. See you next time.

Barbara

 

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything but I have been really behind and I've been trying to get caught up. Here is the latest:

   

I had an opportunity to attend a class taught by Tim Holtz at Stamplistic, a rubber stamp store in Amherst Ohio. I received an invitation from Jennifer, the owner of Stamplistic, to come up.So I signed up for a class and went up for the weekend.

Day One

I left Ft. Mitchell, Friday morning and arrived at Stamplistic later that afternoon. Tim and his assistant, Mario, were already at the store for a meet & greet from 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. What a great event that was. The ladies came in and sat down right next to him while he demo'd some distress techniques. These ladies were thrilled. After the meet & greet, we all headed to Jennifer's lake house for a grill out. It was great. We all got to get to know Tim and Mario better and we sat outside around a firepit to keep warm. It was a tad cool up on the lake.

Day Two

 

Saturday was Sweetest Day and neither Tim nor Mario was not familiar with that holiday. Tim thought Jennifer made that one up, but he researched info online, he read the story, and gave us the background on this day of celebration. So for rest of the afternoon Tim kept calling it SWEETNESS DAY and we kept correcting him, too funny. For those of you not familiar with this day of celebration, click here to read the story of the origin of the holiday.

   

Saturday was also the first day of classes. I got to work the 1st class. Let me explain how that works, all the students are given a paddle with a number on it, similar to one used by bidders at an auction. Then, as Tim explains a product, if the student wants to purchase the item, they raise their paddle and I write down their number next to the product name on a sheet of paper. We take the info to the front and start to bag up their requests and by the end of the class their bags are full of their goodies. Pretty cool. Everyone loved the ease at which this worked. In the second class I was actually a student and it was a great class. We made Raku and fragments from clay and used a host of other items that Ranger makes and Tim explained a lot of the properties of the various items. The class was 3 hours and that went by fast. We had plenty of time for the class though, it's nice not being rushed. Another nice thing,you do not need to bring anything to his classes (not even adhesive - a little private joke on this one). After class I went to the front counter and assisted Mara, Stacy, Jennifer and Bev getting everyone checked out and helped in getting the next group of class participants checked in. It was so busy.It was fun and the time flew. After the last class I went to Jennifer's house and crashed.

Day Three:

     

Day Three was a repeat of day two, with some students returning for more classes and some students taking their first class from Tim at the store. My plan was to leave at noon however that didn't happen. The store was slammed with one class leaving and another class getting set up. I also had to say my goodbye's to everyone.

   

 So after helping everyone I left at 1:30.  What a great weekend.

See you next time and thanks for stopping by,

Barbara

If you live in the Greater Cincinnati, Ohio area, you are probably aware of the wind that blew through here yesterday. I was in my basement  working on rearranging my stamping area  while the worst of the weather was going on. I had just reconnected the TV and cable by my work area, when the electric died for good. There are so many areas without power they are estimating 4-5 days without power. Lovely!!  On a good note, the power in the store is on and we are open for business. I have spoke to a few people today and everyone is ok but the cleanup will take a while.

 

Take care and thanks for stopping by

See you soon

Barbara

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.My best friend, Helen, passed away June 20 after a long (8 years) and courageous battle with cancer. She was off from work, taking a deserved rest on disability , and she got sick on June 6, her mother took her to the hospital and she never came home. She was a trooper from the word, go. She hardly ever complained and if you saw her you would never know she had cancer.

Ann, Helen's mother, is 85 and lived next to Helen, so they could take care of each other. Helen's wish always was to live 1 day longer than her mother so her mother would not have to endure the pain of losing Helen. Unfortunately that was not to be. I miss my good friend already, as I had not spoken to her since right before she went to the hospital. Helen is in a better place and I can hear her saying "simply amazing". And she was just that. Yesterday I read a poem by Linda Ellis. This poem sounds as if it were written just for Helen. Please go to http://www.lindaellisonline.com/ to read this wonderful poem called The Dash.I do hope you enjoy the poem. The picture below was taken the day we went to see "Bodies, the Exhibit". We both loved that show and we had a great time. That was the last time I saw Helen. That was early May.We spoke every week and the last time I spoke to her was right before she went to the hospital.

Helen's visitation and burial was Monday June 23.

 

This is a Thomas Kincade stamp and I thought this was very fitting. So here is the card I made for Ann.

Helen will be missed by many, as she had so many friends.

Thanks for stopping by,

Barbara