We Are All Together Again...

This week we met at Mary's house in Long Beach.  We were all working on different projects.  April's daughter, Amber joined us for the day.  She has been working in Dutch Harbor, AK as a teacher and home for the summer.  April and Amber have just returned from an 11 day camping adventure.  It was fun to hear their stories of camping and car rescue.  There was so much laughing going on that some of us had tears coming down our faces.  It doesn't get any better than this!

Below is a card that Pinky made while we were all visiting.  She used two special punches to make the disks and then proceeded to use metallic thread to wind around each peak to form the design.  This is really striking and makes a beautiful card.  Pink, you just get better and better at this.

Below is a new flag April is making for someone in her Bible study.  She has been learning new lettering techniques and the use of bright color and these just turn out amazing...

 Next, is Amber's hands putting together a beautiful beaded bracelet in every color under the sun.  She said the colors reminded her of the bright colors you see in African crafts and clothing.  She would like to go there some day on a mission trip.

 Jan was working on inchies...little creations of art that are only one inch by one inch.  She gave each of us one when she was done.  She was quietly creating while we were all yacking...

Karen was working on her art journal.  She is just loving this.  Each page is unique and full of color.  Sometimes she goes back and adds more to a page later.  She does a bit of writing in it also.  She was telling us that she works on it almost every day.

Mary was working on carving rubber stamps.  They are made on Speedball Speedycut blocks.  Her favorites were a fox and a raven.  They will make great cards, tags, wrapping paper, and who knows...

Jan, if you have any other pictures you would like to add, please go ahead.  It was a very fun day and went way too fast.  It was just so good to be together again and have our laughing fix.  This group is better than therapy :>))  See you next time!

Quick Post...

Jan has inspired me to hang my flags in the creating room upstairs and I love to see them hanging there.  They are the ones that we all did in this group and I cherish each one.

April finally got her prayer flags hung, out her kitchen window, on the back deck.   She will be able to see them every time she is washing her dishes, which I'm sure will be QUITE often.  (April writing under Mary's blog name for herself here.)  Hehehehehe!
Mary's kitty flag on the left, next is Karen's birdie flag, then April's scripture, next Pinky's birdie's on a limb, and, finally, Jan's heart flag.  I just love 'em!  Thanks, girls.

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO SEE JAN'S BEAUTIFUL HAND DYED FABRIC AND THE FLAGS THAT SHE HAS HUNG IN HER STUDIO AND OUTSIDE.

Jan's Prayer flags

The group hasn't met for a couple of weeks so I thought I'd just fill in a bit until we have something to post.

I have hung all my prayer flags from my friends in my studio.

Above are the ones from this group of gals.  I just love them!  They are all so colorful and unique!
I had wanted to hang them outside but realized that they would deteriorate too quickly and I would rather have them last, so decided to hang them indoors.

Instead I made myself some flags to hang outside. These are just batik fabrics, no extra decorations on them, and some sari silk strips that are tied between each flag.
I love the way they look in my back yard!
I won't mind when these become faded and tattered.
That will just add to their character.

I also did a little dyeing.  I have had some silk/rayon velvet that I have wanted to dye for ages, and finally did so.

I also had some other silk bits that I added to my dye pots.  They all came out wonderfully!  I will use these in my fiber art somewhere. 

 

  The velvets take the dye beautifully and look fantastic!

Here is my Charlie, looking his elegant self.  I love that cat!  He seems to enjoy showing off his fat white belly.
Hope you all are surviving the summer and enjoying it.  Hope to have a group post next week.

Gang's all here!

From left to right: April, Jan, Pinky, Mary, Karen.
Missing Lyla.
We had the waitress take the photo and I cropped it.

More birthday pics!!! And just let me apologize for however this posting looks. They've changed stuff AGAIN, so I have no idea what I'm doing! Jan & Mary are much better at this, and I think I'll just let them be the future post-gals for this blog! :0D

Mary's gifts from Karen came in this cute Cowboy Basket!  Stock full of good stuff!  

 This gorgeous Cowgirl Purse is from Jan.  She purchased it from an online blogger friend.  Wow!  So neat!  Lots of ooohs and aaaahs over this bag!

This cute bag, from Pinky, was FULL of craft/art/gift STUFF!  One of the gifts was this cute coyote puzzle!  So Sweet!

Lots and lots of laughing today!  It felt SO good!  Glad Jan is back with us and feeling better!!!

One of the presents in April's Gift!!!  Money to spend for the day.....and I'm pretty sure she spent if ALL!!!!  Wahoooooo!!!  More art supplies!!! 

Lyla's gift box was full of envelopes FULL of goodies!  Cut-outs galore!  Stickers, embellishments, and more and more cut-outs!  Great stuff for scrapbooking, cards, etc.  SCORE, Mary!  Lyla also gave Mary one of her hand-made personalized books full of the most beautiful and clever pictures. ...Here's just two of the pictures.  A cute kitty and a fox laying in the grass.  So cute!!!                                   

I had to add this because I tried to get Pinky to give me a nice smile.....and she did this on PURPOSE....so, what goes around, comes around, Pinky!  You better smile NICE next time!   :0D

Belated Birthday Bash!!!

Monday, we celebrated Mary's birthday by starting the morning at Stephanie's in Astoria for breakfast.  There, she unwrapped her multitude of birthday goodies...they never seemed to stop coming :>))  Birthdays are so fun with this group!

Next, we showed our flags...finally...to each other and did our trading.  Karen picked out some for Lyla and will be either taking them to her or sending them to her in Redmond.  The flags were amazing!  These pictures just don't do them justice at all.

We started our shopping craze at Dots and Doodles Art Store in Astoria.  Both April and Mary went a little wild in there.  Next stop...Joann's.  We all really controlled ourselves in there compared to what we usually do.  I was amazed.  On to the Goodwill...a favorite place for all of us.  We all had bags in our hands when we were done for sure.  April wanted to stop at the dollar store as she was looking for a little spritzing bottle for her art work.  We were famished by this time and hit Doogers in Warrenton for some late lunch.  What a wonderful day!  It just doesn't get any better than this...good friends, good food, and piles of presents...Wow!

Both of these pictures were taken at Stephanie's as we had breakfast...what fun!!!

The flags below are Jan's

This batch is April's.

Pinky went crazy and all of these are hers.

This single is one of Karen's.

 These 8 are Mary's.

 Here we are at Dooger's for lunch...
I'm sorry I got these out of order, but the bottom flags are Karen's.  We all loved the flags and had fun trading them.