ATC holder

I made this ATC holder accordian book for a swap on Nervousness. SillySaraSue sent me an envelope full of yellowy goodies and I made this and sent it back to her. It was fun - and I got to keep what was left over!

My moment of fame!

So - I was on the FRONT PAGE of the paper in Iowa City today! Wow - I thought maybe the mailing story would be back in the tail end of the paper, but my husband leaves me a message today saying "Did you know that you're on the front page of the Press Citizen today?"

Anyway, here's the link the story - you have to scroll down to see my picture. I look pretty weird. I was all bundled up and trying to avoid making eye contact with the photographer. :)

http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051212/NEWS01/512120312/1079

What's up...

I've been working on making our Christmas cards and more frames for gifts. I have several more gifts to make for the people on our list, and I still have to address all the envelopes and sign all the cards, so I'll be busy for the next couple weeks. Anyway, I'd rather be making gifts than spending time in the packed shopping mall!

Sticks Mirror

Here are the pictures of the wedding gift mirror - as promised. Now we just have to decide where to hang it up.

Stripes and Polka Dots ATC's

These are 3 ATC's that I made for a "Stripes and Polka Dots" ATC swap on Nervousness. I'll be passing them on to the host, Beth, when I send her journal back to her this week.

I was able to make two more clipboard frames for Christmas gifts this weekend, and finish my handmade gift for the E.C. holiday gift exchange. I still have lots of things on my to-do list, but I'm not moving through them too quickly right now because I'm fighting a sinus infection. Ouch. At least I got ahold of some antibiotics this afternoon.

Sunday my family came over to see the Grant Wood exhibit at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. It was an excellent exhibit, but I had already seen it once, and my sinuses were giving me tons of grief, so it was a pretty rough afternoon. The *really* exciting part is that our wedding gift from my parents was completed this week and they brought it with them. It is a mirror made by the artist/company called Sticks and it has "marriage advice" from my parents to us. It is so perfect and beautiful - I'll post pictures soon.

This is something great that I discovered today. It is a 20 questions game that will *blow your mind*. It can guess anything that you can think of. This would be a great gift for anyone on your list over 8 years old.

I made a frame for a Christmas gift for my friend who was my personal attendant at the wedding. It is nice to be able to check one off my to-do list since I have a long list of handmade gifts that I want to make this year. I used this clipboard frame by 7Gypsies. I think I will use more of these for making gifts. They're relatively quick and easy to alter and look neat-o no matter what.

Beth's journal is here!

I'm so excited that Beth's journal came in the mail today! It is so great to be able to look forward to working on this project that will grow and change everytime we exchange the journals. I'm planning on getting to work in it soon, but tonight I'm reserving a few hours to work on a Christmas gift for my sister, which I won't mention here just in case she comes snooping around. What I *should* be doing is working off the calories from yesterday (mmm...) but that always seems to take second place to making art (and just about everything else). Too bad...

I'm posting a picture of a page in a sewn & stiched deco via the E.C. I just realized it looks quite similar to the bee page I did last week, but I do enjoy the patterned quilt effect. And I *love* my African symbols stamp set.