Rose Parade

I have always wanted to attend the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade.

So now that I'm 50 it seems like a great way to begin the New Year. In spite of wanting to do this, I have put off going now for years! Seems like at the last minute it has been too easy to stay home, but then I regret the decision after. This year I found a like minded soul in my new found niece, so off we go. It will be a whirl wind trip but it should be fun.

If anyone has attended before or has any of the scoop as to how to do this, please let me know.

We're parade virgins.

These pictures are of floats designed by Charles T. Meier. Since 2006 he has served as the float designer and floral designer for the Sierra Madre Rose Float Association. Charles' floats are always winners. I'm looking forward to see what he designs this year.
Oh and did I mention the weather report for Pasadena, California is 70 degrees for New Years Day?
Woo Whoo

Yuli-Ya Jewelry

Look at this jewelry by Ukrainian designer Julia.

The flowers are polymer clay embedded into wire, beading and ribbons.

You can see more at Yuli-Ya.

I found her at Polymer Clay Daily

Christmas gifts

Pillows for gifts done from prints of hubbies work....Dave the famous artist.

The transfers onto cotton worked great. This time I used Ink Jet Printing by Jacquard.

The Rat warrior came out rather dull though, so I beefed up the colors with Prisma colored pencils.

The venetian mask was with made with plaster gauze and paper clay. The fabric for the headpiece was an old rayon velvet piece I had in my stash and the rose is a fabric "Calamity Kim" design.

Christmas Greetings

to all... and too all, a good night.

Artist: Tif at Dottie Angel

Check out this Christmas tree by Dottie Angel.

When did she sneak in and take everything off my studio table to wrap onto this tree?

I'm wondering how you tell your family, " I was going to make you that sweater, but I had to use the balls of yarn for my doorbell wreath and the knitting needles just added that perfect splash of color that I needed for the Christmas tree. Maybe next year."

Scarves

Playing around with some workshop ideas.

This scarf project is looking promising, but not before Christmas.

It's going to have to be for the "after the holiday, blues" .

You know, the time when everyone has left and clean up has begun and you feel the need to get out of the house!

P.S. Today was my BIG Birthday.

If you forgot to send gifts, cards and well wishes it's OK. There is still time.

I'm stretching it out for the entire month!

Official Web Page

It's my BIG birthday in two days.

Yep, I'm talking a biggie! Well, Action Hero, my dear daughter could not hold out her birthday gift any longer. This is what I received from her this evening.

TerisaBrooks-Huddleston.com

If you type it in this great web page banner appears.

If you scroll and click onto any of the text boxes: blog, etsy, flickr.....it takes you right to the site.

How stinkin' cool is that!

Yep, it pays to have a geek for a daughter!

I love it!

Aprons

What I did on the 12th day of Christmas.

The kind of commission work I love.

3 whimsical, colorful, fussy cut aprons.

White Chocolate Roses

This was happening on my kitchen table the other evening.

My Action Hero daughter had a friend over and they were busy creating white chocolate roses.

They informed me they needed this:

To do this:

Could someone please tell me if that's true?

Art Class: Kindergarten

Here are my Kinder Peeps.

Here are the girls.

And here are the guys.

I love working with this age.

They are true artists.

Creative purity.

This is where we begin.

Then the years of sophisticated art instruction settle in and we can lose ourselves.

Those of us who live to create, find ourselves striving the rest of our careers trying to regain what we once had.

DIY Fashion Tutorial:Crochet necklace

Couldn't you buy yarn like this from Artemis Artemis at etsy.

Collect caps like Dawn L.E. Riden

Crochet around them with Dawning Dreams pattern.

And create a necklace like these from Anthropologie?

Yes, Glam Ma and Aunt Cheri...I talkin' to you!

Madame de Pompadour

This is a painting.

This is NOT.

A custom sewn garment by Minnie and some amazing photography!

She is a costume design student from New Zealand who has just graduated. It's really too bad she's not more talented.

Le Petite Manchette at Burda Style by Minnietheminks.

Recycled and Revamped: The Scarf

Craftzine and Singer hold contests fairly often and the winner wins a sewing machine or in this case a serger. Not that I need another machine but I'm going to be teaching some fashion and sewing classes again soon and the kids have nothing! I collected a few old machines from friends but I have to tell you, "old" just does not work. So this is my second attempt at entering , "for the kids".

This was a Me, My Scarf and I contest.

The scarf was done with an old pair of levi's.

An old sweater that became a felt wad in the dryer (accidentally) and an old model.

Part of the rules were to photograph it on YOURSELF!

Everything was going well until I read this part. After the first photo shoot, I quickly realized "cute" was no longer an adjective I could embrace. I then remembered my mother telling me to, "photograph yourself laying down....all the wrinkle fall back into your hairline".

Well, that didn't work either.

It's a bit difficult photographing hanging upside down on your bed with a bow. The bow seems to get in the way and unless you do it all quickly, your eyes bug out and your face turns red.

Therefore, cropping was used on the third try!