Hold Dear

i'm buzzing...

...with excitement! Silver Bella is officially only ONE WEEK away. I leave next Thursday at O-600 and in case you're wondering, the O standing for "Oh My God what was I thinking booking such an early flight!" :-) Oh well, it'll get me to Omaha early enough to arrive, get all checked in and settle in for my weekend of magic. I'm SO EXCITED! I can't wait to see my pal Lilli and I also get to meet Kari, Wendy, Julie B. and about a hundred other Bellas! Whoo-hoo!!!

I have a couple of Silver Bella swap items but I'm gonna have to show those to you tomorrow because I still have LOTS to to still show you from Art and Soul...and this ain't even all of it! I still have to finish my Lisa Call bracelet and share that with you.

First up, here's a picture of the villages I received from the Art and Soul Village Swap. These sweet little bits were just all loverly...

If you want to refresh your memory of what my little villages looked like, you can bop over here. :-)

So do you Moo? I love Moo cards and have had the opportunity to trade with some VERY talented artists! Look at all these glorious pieces of Moo art I've received! Can you believe it? I am very proud of this collection!

I made a few purchases on Vendor Night at Art and Soul. I bought LOTS of fun and odd bits for collage. I bought this amazing doll head from Thomas Ashman. He is such a cool dude. I am definitely going to look into taking some classes with him and his wife, Ramona next year. I bought the bingo balls on Vendor Night and I bought the doll hands at Flutter on N. Mississippi in Portland. Oh what a lovely shop. I also made some delectable purchases at collage, Poppy and Ivy and Porch Light, but alas, those goodies have already been assimiliated into the Craft Pit (my studio).

I also bought this beautiful wall hanging from the very kind and talented Lisa Kaus. I absolutely love this. It just makes me very happy. Actually, ALL of Lisa's work makes me happy.

The hanging says "The sun shines bright today for it is a pleasant day." Just lovely.

I also wanted to show you pictures of the charms I made in Sally Jean Alexander's Soldering for Virgins class. Man, that was an fabulous class and she's just awesome! And her husband, Brad was great too! I haven't had a chance to solder since class but I totally think I got it! Here are my charms. Some are still a work in progress.

The "beautiful" charm is my favorite, for obvious reasons...it my Momma! The front is her beautifulness and then the back is her shadow from the same picture. Pretty cool, eh?

Okay so can I show you one more thing? It's not Art and Soul or Silver Bella  but something I did that I had lots of fun with. I've mentioned before that I have a group of friends at work that call ourselves "The Taco Salad Gang." We meet most Thursdays at a cafe and Thursday is Taco Salad Day and so, well, you can figure out the rest. A member of our beloved Taco Salad Gang transferred to another building and so to help her always remember her pals, we put this together.

Our pictures and then little fold outs where we wrote a message. Pictured are Cindy, Leah, me, and Melissa.

Whew! Okay I think I'm done for now.

By the way...Happy Halloween!!! We have had a TON of trick or treaters. I just adore that this still happens in our world. I know for a few years there were so many scares that kids just didn't go out. There seems to be a shift...and I for one am glad about it. Take care!!!

circle journal - last LO!

Boy life sure is traveling at WARP speed these days! SO much going on! I got lots done this weekend, mostly in preparation for Silver Bella, and I'll be sharing LOTS with you but for today's show and tell...

I give you the last of the LO's for the Circle Journal I'm participating in that the lovely and talented Andrea hosted. Thank you SO much for all your hosting prowess, Andrea, and for your efforts to wrangle this thing to a close!!! The last LO here is actually Andrea's! Her theme is "When Words Fail, Music Speaks."

Way back when I first heard Andrea's theme, I knew my LO would be either about my favorite singer Jeff Buckley or about my favorite song. "In My Life" by a couple of lads you may have heard of, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. :-) I went with my favorite song which is, in my opinion, the most perfect and best song ever recorded in the history of the Universe. This is my "stranded on a desert island and can only pick on song to listen to forever" song. Oh but first...

SPOILER WARNING FORMALITY...CIRCLE JOURNAL AHEAD! :-)

The journaling inside is a letter to John and Paul telling them how their song "In My Life," saved my marriage, which it did. :-)

I will get this baby in the mail tomorrow and on it's way to Dana. This CJ thang is done and dusted...well for me anyways! Ya-hooey!

Okay so I got some other news...you ready for this? Miranda slammed a car door on her hand this past Saturday and broke her middle left finger. OUCH OUCH OUCH! She said when it happened, she just starting screaming, "F..., F..., F...!!!" (you can guess the word!) Her friend Jessi had to come around and open the car door to get Miranda's finger out! Okay...this has got to be THE test of parental separation...hearing that your child has hurt herself and that she had to wait six or seven hours in the ER and you're not within hugging distance! Thank goodness she's okay and is on antibiotics and Motrin. My (almost 21 year old) baby! :-(

studio friday.

I am determined to make it to Studio Friday this week since I haven't joined in awhile! It's after midnight here so I'm just squeekin' in! Just lots going on. Silver Bella in LESS than two weeks...Miranda moved to Maui...also occupying my mind is my Mom will be having surgery in December so I get to go to California to help out, hang out, and watch movies with my Momma! She's finally gettin' that new hip she's always been hankering for! :-) Yay Mom!!! Oh and an added bonus...I'll get to visit my sisters Renee and Simone and see my great-nieces for the first time! I've got two of them now because Ryan and Tina had number two about a week ago!

So back to SF...this week's topic is ORANGE as suggested by  Espialdesign.

Since Halloween is fast approaching, and it's fall, let's focus on the color orange.

Oh boy! I love orange! It's one of my favorite colors. Specifically, pumpkin orange!!! It just makes me all squeeky and happy.  I don't have any pumpkin-colored fun to share with you because we haven't got our pumpkins yet. We tried to go this past Sunday but our very favoritest place was closed! We'll try again this weekend.

So let's celebrate orange a different way, shall we?Going outside of the studio here but I recently made a very fantastical discovery...Odwalla Pumpkin Protein Drink. And it's soy!!! Is this new? I haven't seen it before. It's pretty good. It has the consistency of eggnog so I think it'll go good in coffee. Or better yet, maybe warmed with a little rum and cinnamon. :-)

The other orange I want to celebrate is the orange of sweet Satsuma Mandarin oranges!

Okay so even though you can get mandarin oranges other times of the year, aren't they just more fun getting a whole box of them? I think they always taste better in quantity! They're SO good and SO fun! And even though Miranda was not of the generation where all she got in her Christmas stocking was an orange, we still like to always put one in there...just as a reminder to all of us that there was a time when if ALL someone got in their stocking was an orange, they were thankful. :-)

Thanks Stacia and Tine for the fun and hope you all have a great weekend!!

We got boo'd!

So a few nights ago, I'm in the kitchen puttering around when the doorbell rang. I looked at the clock. 9:00 pm. Glen wasn't home so I wasn't about to answer it. I couldn't really "peek" to see who it was because our front door has these two long windows on either side of it. If you try to do the sneaker peeker thing, the peekee can see you and you're committed. After an appropriate amount of time (long enough for a salesman to leave but short enough so I could see who was walking away), I went to the door. No one was there. But I knew someone cute had been there because there was this goody-filled pumpkin head on our porch.

A bucket full of tricks and treats! How fun!!!! There was a scroll with directions that I was now supposed to "boo" two of my neighbors within two days. More fun!!! Of course I went out the next day and bought some cute buckets and filled them with goodies. I just love our neighborhood!

I suspect whoever boo'd us had a cat because Atticus was ALL OVER this!

In keeping with the Halloween spirit, I wanted to share a few other related fun bits...

Isn't this gorgeous?? It's from my ever so clever and ever so crafty friend Lilli. She made it for me and brought it when she was here visiting for Art and Soul. It is SO cute!!! Thank you Lilli!!!

Oh and let me show you a goody bag I got from my friend Andrea. This girl KNOWS how to get her hands on the good stuff. Look at those treat bags and GASP! those trick tickets and treat tickets! I didn't see anymore of these tickets in her Etsy shoppe but there's plenty more to tempt you! Thank you Andrea!

And speaking of Etsy, I made a little Halloween-inspired purchase over at Tricia's Etsy shoppe!

I LOVE this! The german glass glitter around the edge completely sets this off! Tricia has a few more and she's super fast with her shipping so if you ordered now, you could still get it in time to wear for Halloween! :-)

Okay...one more fun little sweety treaty. Not necessarily Halloweenish but it's from from Etsy! :-) Felicia aka Fluffy Flowers has the CUTEST stuff E-VAH in her Etsy shoppe. Man, that girl is good. One look at "Kyle" and I knew he was coming home with me!  When Felicia sent him, she included some sweet tags AND a little stuffed mouse!!! I'm SO sad though...I can't find him anywhere! When I opened this package, Atticus QUICKLY swooped in and started doin' that little busy body sniffy dance. If you have a cat, you know what I'm talkin' about. I fear he snagged the little mouse when I wasn't looking. I'd even named him already ...I called him "Bunion." I'm hope he shows up soon...and in one piece!

So you can see lots o' cute cute in my life! Oh and speaking of cute, Miss Miranda is doing GREAT in Kihei. She's went swimming in the ocean again, is eating some amazing food (she said she found a great vegan Vietnamese restaurant), and has started job hunting. Her and her pal, Jessi, are also looking at apartments every day. Heck, they looked at a place the day Miranda arrived! Miranda was also going to go to one of the many botanical gardens on Maui today.

Man, I wish that girl blogged! :-)

hello.

Hi there! Just thought I send out a quick hello to you. It's been a busy weekend.

These last few days Glen and I have spent all of our time with our girlie, Miranda. We took her to the airport today, where she got on a plane with a one-way ticket to Kahului, Oahu. Sigh. Not only has my girlie officially left the nest, she now lives in another time zone!

We spent this past weekend getting in lots of Miranda-y things...we went to a pumpkin patch, we drove around and watched the leaves change color, we went to Nutshell for dinner, we went to Pix Patisserie for dessert, we rented Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie for Theatres, we made Italian Stew, we watched lots of episodes of Stella, and we roasted chestnuts. We spent lots of time just hanging out. :-)

We spoke to Miranda just a bit ago. She had a great flight and was enjoying herself already. When her friend, Jessi, picked her up, it was 90 degrees so they headed straight to the beach where they went for a swim in the warm, crystal clear ocean. While she was on the phone with us, Miranda was eating an avocado that another friend had grown on the island. She said it was the best avocado she has EVER eaten. She also said there are wild chickens on the island and there are no billboards. I think she likes it there. :-)

Okay...that's it for now...I'll come back and visit some more with you once I get my head and heart back to reality.

Hugs to you!

two beautiful people - Lilli and Julie B

Found on a Starbucks coffee cup...

The world is smaller than you think, and the people on it are more beautiful than you think.

Bertram van Munster                              

This quote is so awesome. Kinda wakes me up. Sure, there's some crap going on in the world, but there's also lots of beauty. And beautiful people. Beautiful people who are nice. I wanted to share this quote with you today because I have recently been the recipient of some niceness from some beautiful people. Do you know any nice people like that? People that do nice things for you for no other reason than, well, because they're nice? I hope you do. :-)

The first nice thing was a big package I received from my wonderful, beautiful friend Lilli. She and her awesome husband Steve were in Portland recently for Art and Soul (just Lilli went to this, not Steve! LOL!)and to hang out with Glen and I. I had ordered a couple to things from Lilli and she brought them with her.  Everything was bundled up in this perfect fabric bag...

In addition to the items I ordered from Lilli, she brought me some beautiful soap, a lovely hand towel, and some S'WHEAT scrapbooking/collage pieces! She also brought me a Halloween treat but I'm saving that for another post!!!

And then there were the actual items I ordered. Sigh. These things make me so, so happy. There was the custom "Lilli Belle Tote" with my precious "Hold Dear" sentiment on it. I fell in love with the fabric combo when Lilli posted it for me to choose but you absolutely cannot believe how much more beautiful it is in person. The fabric, the "Hold Dear," the swirl...

 

I love this bag. So beautiful. Lilli's work is impeccable. Her workmanship and attention to detail are amazing! I know Lilli puts a lot of thought into her projects and it all shows with these totes. She sold some on her Etsy shop here. She says she's gonna get some more up soon so be sure to mark her shop as a favorite! You won't regret it!

The other little sweet treat I ordered for myself was one of Lilli's customized Inspiration Books. Isn't my Kindergarten picture the cutest?! He he he...:-)

Here's the inside...

I just think this is the coolest thing. Lilli designed this when she was coming up with things to send to her Silver Bella Inspiration Swap partner, Amy Powers. She got her inspiration for the shape from one of those old timey needle books. But the words, the tokens...all Lilli's design. SO brilliant! Last I saw, she still had one of these up on her Etsy shop. Thanks again, dear Lilli, for all the lovely, lovely gifts!!!

Okay so I have another beautiful person that I want to talk about. Her name is Julie Baxley. I have never met Julie and only knew her briefly through the Silver Bella Yahoo group. But you know what? This little fact didn't stop my Bella Sister from doing something SO above and beyond sweet for me!

I had put out the word that I was looking for a copy of Teresa McFayden's Foof-A-Life. I couldn't find it anywhere and I HAD to get me a copy of it!!!! Well, this little darlin' of a sugar pie honey bunch e-mailed me and said she had a surprise for me. A surprise? For me?! I LOVE surprises!!! I sent her my address and in a few days, I received a package from said sugar pie. This was what Julie sent...

Well color me Foofy! This makes me so happy not only because do I now have Foof in my life, but also because of the way it came into my life! A very beautiful person went out of her way to package this up (please note Julie's exquisite penmanship!) with a handmade card even and sent this all to me! SO thoughtful and SO kind! Thank you so so much dear Julie!

So there you have it. Just when you're not expecting it, you find people really are more beautiful than you think. :-)

art and soul class projects.

Life's been a bit busy here at House of Geller. I'm still trying to finish up a couple things from Art and Soul and am gearing up to work on the swaps I'm participating in for Silver Bella. But alas, whenever I think I'm gonna get to work on something, it all gets trumped if Miss Miranda comes by. I gotsta get in as much girlie time as possible because she leaves for Kihei on Monday. I had planned on last night gettin' some stuff done but she said she needed to be with us. :-) We had some dinner and then had a family fun shopping trip at Target.

I have lots to share with with you from Art and Soul classes. Sigh. I had such great classes this year. I saw on Catherine's blog she said she'd take the same classes all over again. I completely agree. Art and Soul has such high quality classes!

Thursday was Lisa Call's PMC Charms and Bracelet. Lisa is this gorgeous woman and when she starts teaching, you quickly realize she's also one smart cookie! She's knowledgeable, talented, and one of those generous people that will share with you everything she knows. This is my second class with Lisa and so far she's two for two with sending me home with a completed project or VERY nearly completed project. Yay! Another fun thing about this class was that Elise was in this class and we got to hang and have lunch together!

Here are the charms I made in class as well as all the bracelet bits. This is a work in progress but all I need to Liver of Sulphur this stuff up and assemble. First free evening I get, I'm gonna wrap this baby up!

Thursday night was Juliana Coles' Art of Repetition Visual Journaling class. (I'm not sure if that's actually the title.) Another great class and that Ms. Coles is such a different teacher than I've experienced. In a word, I call her style "blunt." Very engaging, very caring, and without a doubt, supremely talented but whew...she showed up to teach and in turn, expected that we showed up to learn! Awesome blossom! I took her class Thursday night and I really should left Art and Soul exhaused but after Juliana's class, I was just buzzing!!!

Here are two of the three pages I made. I'm not sharing the third because it is very black and just didn't photograph well. You're not missing much. :-)

The brownish looking blobs are actually tissue paper I added. Ugh. This was one of those "don't try this again" experiences. I did like the "graffiti" style writing and using different washes.

Friday's class was with the fab Traci Bautista. WHAT an adorable girl! She is SO friggin' cute and so crazy sweet and talented! And SO photogenic! :-) And of course, Traci is very generous in sharing all of her tricks and techniques. I learned some awesome things that I can't wait to incorporate into my repetoire!

Oh and a side note, this was the only day I actually took any pictures at Art and Soul. That's kind of unusual for me but guess I was just busy experiencing the event and living in the moment. :-) I don't regret not taking any pictures at Art and Soul but I do regret that I didn't get any pictures of my pal Lilli and I when we were on our day of shopping!

Another fun thing about this class was that my friend Melissa was in this class so we got to hang all day and have lunch together.

Here's a picture of the completed journals from the class. Yep, we all pretty much finished our journals. Totally cool!

Here's my journal...one of the fun techniques that Traci shared is that she doesn't make a "front" and "back." She creates her journals so that either cover could be the front and/or back. Very cool.

Here's one side...

The flowers are made from my beloved white fabric paint. I can't get enough of that stuff!!! Here's the other side...

These next two pictures of are the inside pages. We made lots of painted paper and then bound them into our collaged covers. So how cool is it that Traci guided us to creating these wildly colorful pages and then shared with us some of her drawings in black and white? Any black and white you see in these pages and on the covers are copies Traci's drawings. Don't they just help PUNCH up the color? I am so lovin' this visual play!

Whew! I'm almost caught up with taking pictures of my projects so in a day or so, I'll share my pieces from Sally Jean's class and also all the goodies I've picked up here and there INCLUDING the gorgeous tote that I ordered from dear Lilli.

I just gotta get this all squeezed in between visiting with my baby girl!!! Only five more days until we're an ocean apart!

ephemera swap.

So a few weeks back, Cassondra and I did an ephemera swap. She and I met at Anahata's class down in Ashland and even in class she and I swapped a few bits we had brought with us. When we decided to do a full ephemera swap, I KNEW I'd be in for some good treat action and I was not disappointed. This girl's got the goods!

So without further ado, here are some pictures of what Cassondra sent me. Yep, I'm a lucky girl.

These papers are what my dreams are made of. All perfect and all originals. Yow-za.! Cassondra's been selling these on her Etsy site and there's a few left!

I love these pieces of vintage wallpaper borders.

Isn't this tin just lovely? What's inside you ask? Let's take a peek...

Oh this gorgeous vintage millinery flower is SO luscious! But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Here are all the contents spilled out...

SO much goodness. Look at all those beautiful gold findings!

I am so lovin' those little viles of china paint. Yummy!!!

Thanks again Cassondra. This was SO much fun!!!

fatbooks.

Hi there! I've missed you! I wasn't able to visit with you too much these last few days because we couldn't get our internet connection to work. Turns out...okay, this is a little embarrassing...the "standby" button on the modem had accidentally been pressed! Whoops! Glen figured this out but only after calling our internet provider. He he he... oh well...at least now I can get back to spending some time with you!!!

Okay, so I seriously could do a post every single day this week with all the things I want to show you...and I just may! Lots of projects and lots of sweet, sweet mail love has been coming my way and I want to share every last drop with you! I'm anxious to get you caught up so with everything that has happened these last few weeks so I get around to showing the project I made in a class I took today! (I have a GREAT husband, don't I?) I drove out to the Thistle Patch Studio in Forest Grove and took a felted Christmas stocking class. This class was SO much fun and I'm really happy with how my stocking turned out. I have a few pix to show you of my stocking as well as shots from the studio. Gorgeous gorgeous eye candy!

Today I'd like to share the pictures of the two fatbooks I participated in from Art and Soul. These were my first fatbooks and now that I've received them, I am SO happy I signed up for the ArtFest fatbooks! They are unbelieveably gorgeous and I can't wait to clear a shelf in my little studio to display these babies!

Here is the Heart Fatbook which was hosted by the fun and delightful Elise. I was SO tickled because Elise was in Lisa Call's PMC Charms and Bracelet class and so I got to hang and visit with her all day. Elise is also the host of the Round Robin I joined that will be starting at the end of November.

On to the pictures already!

The front of the book. Elise hand bound the books with this goregous copper wire. I just LOVE it! Here are a few views...

So just in case you're wondering why these are called fatbooks...well, it's because they are too fat from all the chunky, funky good bits to close! Isn't it gorgeous?!

I showed you my pages before (go here if you'd like to see them again). Here are a few pages from other artists...

This beautiful page is by Lisa Martinez.

This amazing page is by Diana Frey...

This gorgeous page is by Christy Novak...

The theme of the other fatbook I participated in was "ArtiTextural Home...the Fabric of Our Society." This one was hosted by Marian and it is equally as gorgeous. I am officially submitting my observation that it is impossible for a group of artists to get together and create a fatbook that is anything less than spectacular!

Here are some pictures of this one starting with the cover...

And then a few other views...

This one closes a little more than the Heart Fatbook, but that's only because it was bound a lot looser. Still pretty chunky!

If you'd like to see the pages that I made for this book again you can go here. Here are a few pages from other artists...

This beautiful page is by Linda Schultz.

This gorgeous page is Margaret Rodgers.

And then this page is by Tracie Lyn Huskamp. Oh so lovely.

So are you eyeballs all filled up for now? I am so in love with these books. Everytime I go through them, I find more detail. SO many talented artists participated in these fatbooks and I'm SO happy to have these! They will be treasured for many many years!!!!

Okay, so lots more to come these next few days so please be sure to come back soon!

Take care and please give my love to the kids! :-)

let's get started!

I have LOTS to show you so let's get this party started, shall we?

I first wanted to show you the charms I made for the Art and Soul swap. I also want to show you the ones I received! This swap was so flippin' awesome! The talent of the artists who participated in this is unbelieveable. Once I was home, trying to settle down, I was going through the charms and I was literally in tears. The beauty of these charms is exquisite and the amount of detail was overwhelming! I am in awe of these artists!

Okay, so here is my charm. I started with Scrabble tiles...PUH-lease! I had to use these because I've got about a million of 'em.I've been wanting to make charms out of them forever! My intention was to solder them and I will be trying that soon now that I've got mad soldering skills - thanks to Sally Jean! For these ones though, I just drilled holes in them using a Fiskars drill. I collaged a few tiles and made color photocopies of the best ones and glued those onto the drilled tile.

For the fronts, I used the "home" definition from an old dictionary in keeping with the Art and Soul "At Home" theme. The "Portland" is cut from some old theatre tickets.

For the back, I carved a "house" rubber stamp. Ain't it sweet? :-)

There's lots of glue, ink, and diamond glaze added to this mix. I also made some pearly bead dangles. I've got SO many beads but could I use something I already had? NooOOOoo! I had to take about a week to pick out that perfect bead/finding combination that made me happy. Sheeshh...it's a wonder I can figure out what to wear every day. Oh well, twern't for naught...I'm very happy with my charm-ola's!

Here's a tray full of the charms. For the "presentation," I put a charm in it's own little micro baggie and included a Moo card.

Last night I spent some time putting the charms I have onto a bracelet. I used a funky old bracelet I found at a Goodwill a year or so ago. I cannot stop looking at this thing. It's making me VERY happy. I'm anxious to start wearing this and making the world just a little more artsy!

My friend Melissa was also in the charm swap and she made some really awesome face charms. She also made adorable little boxes for her charm presentation. Okay, so if that wasn't crazy cool enough, she made the boxes the size of her Moo cards. Very cute, right? Well, there's more! Melissa also included one of her Moo cards which had a picture of her charm! That girl is a genius! And an organized genius at that! :-)

I was very happy that I got to connect with Deryn. We met at last year's Art and Soul and although she wasn't participating in the large group of charm swappers, we decided it would be fun to meet and still swap some charms! How lucky am I?! Okay...this girl makes some amazing jewelry. Very rich and soulful. I'm a gonna have to get me some more! I added this charm to my bracelet but I'm already thinking I'm going to turn it into a pendant.

Sigh...I have much much more to share with you but I gotta pace myself here. If I showed you everything at once, not only would this post be about 17 pages long, it would literally take me about 10 hours!

Tomorrow I'll show you the two fatbooks and village swap I participated in. OH.SO.GORGEOUS!

I best run now...I've got a very patient husband that needs me to keep him company on the couch while he watches a little something we like to call Stargate SG1...or who knows, maybe I'll even watch some Keith Olbermann with him. Uh-oh...is he watching CSPAN? Here I go...I'm such a good wifey! :-)