Domino Ornaments

These are some of the domino ornaments I've made for the upcoming artisan fair. I have been working on these just about every spare minute... Right now, I have about 50 finished, and I hope to have another 20 all cured and ready to roll by Saturday!

The pears are hand painted, the stars with swirls are stamped with a handpainted background.

The 'sepia' toned one is tea stained and then stamped with the swirl background, and accented with vintage text and a transferred image, and then embellished with a rhinestone & a vintage wooden button.

The snowflake design starts with a handpainted background, and then I stamp the images onto tissue paper and decoupage the images onto the domino, and embellish with rhinestones.

They've been a lot of fun! I hope that they sell!

~Anne

We Survived!

We made it back home about an hour ago from our Black Friday Shopping... it wasn't as rough on our pocketbooks as previous years, but, the crowds seem to be growing and growing!

We got most of the things on our list (and then some) -- but there were a couple of things we had planned on getting that were sold out too. Ah well, that's the risk you take when you leave the bulk of your holiday shopping to Black Friday, I suppose.

Anyways, some good did come out of it all (besides the bargain on the Guitar Hero III):

1) I am reminded this time every year just WHY I blend my own tea and prefer it over the chai lattes available from starbucks. Sure, I don't have a milk steamer (yet) and so I add a splash of unheated/unfrothed half and half to my chai instead. And... I don't even brew my chai the same way (they use a concentrated blend that is a tea steeped in milk rather than in boiling water -- I prefer the boiling water method)... but, even without the fancy steeping method and steamed, frothy milk, my chais are still better!

2) I am reminded this time every year just why I don't like the malls much anymore, and why I prefer to do most of my shopping online.

Anyways... how about some art? This isn't new... exactly... although it is from a currently ongoing deco round robin...

This is the cover from my Garden Tea Party deco. I am waiting on it to come home -- I can't wait to see what the others did! Here is the first page of my inside spread...

and here's page 2...

So, that's all for now... coming soon... some pictures of the ornaments I've made for the upcoming artisan's fair!

~Anne

It's Black Friday...

And it's 5:05 am currently... yep, I'm up to commence the "tradition" my hubby and I seemed to have started a few years ago... waking up at hours meant only for sleeping to head out into the cold cruel retail world and shop for gifts. When you think about it, it's really quite ridiculous to continue with this ritual. We have succumbed to the commercialization. Sad. Very very sad.

But, hey, what can I do? I can't "make" a Guitar Hero III bundle set (which is on sale at Target for 85 bucks today), I can't "make" my little pony playsets. :( And these are the treasures that top the lists of my daughters this year. Yes, and the maxi glide hair straightening system, which is purchased online... yay! No crazy lines! Although... I really find the name of the hair system offensive... "maxi glide" -- sounds like some sort of feminine hygene product, not a hair straightening system. Right?

OK... I'm off to shop. Wish me luck!

~Anne