kandeland

the livin' is easy...

Oh yes. Summertime. The sun peeked through today, and I got out in the yard and let out a big breath of relief! Job secured, creativity flowing, health good, beach opening, much loved, purging crap out of my life, and now, digging in the dirt! Got to cut the grass, plant some flowers, weed, and sit back and enjoy the sight.

Bulbs are coming up a bit, buds are popping all over, and my mulching days are about to begin!

So before I set out into the garden this evening, my girl and I went out to do some shopping around for the afternoon.

We hit the antique mall and I found some summery, to die for items!

A great purse that I am going to use this summer:

Love the pretty flowers...

And this fabulous millinery hat...

Such a great variety of flowers...this one is definitely coming apart soon for projects! The flowers were only glued so they will come off easy. Sometimes I hate to use the flowers off of these, but when they are half falling off I feel much better about it!

It's been quite awhile since I went thrifting for old stuff, so it was fun to cruise through the antique mall and find these. I also found some fun cigar boxes, jars, and this book of sheet music:

I love the size of the pages of the sheet music...

So we started the day with shopping adventures, and ended it with garden adventures. Tomorrow is mulch madness day, and then I plan on having a relaxing, child-free night at the beach with a big full cooler, sunset and perfect company...

be back soon! Happy Long Weekend!

thank you

Thank you all so much for the "congrats" comments about my job! I appreciate all your kind words! I'm really so thrilled that I will be able to continue to teach ESL to refugees. It is my true honor to have this job, and the thought that I could have lost it... well, let's just say I'm SOOOO thrilled that I was able to get through the process and get hired for the new school! It makes me appreciate my job even more now. I was worried because the hiring process sounded quite intimidating, but I decided that I had no choice but to give it my all. I tried my best to stay positive and believe it would work out. And it paid off!

(I bought this awesome canvas from Emily Rooney for my stepfather for his birthday, and it came the day after I was told I was hired!)

So it's the weekend. Rain and more rain for now, but that ok, because I need to stay in for the next day at least to get things done in the house. I've been staying quite inspired I must say. Working on gifts for friends that will be visiting this July, making ATCs, and art journaling. Before I go I thought I'd share a couple links to some fabulous blogs that have been keeping my inspiration high this week....

The Incredible Melody Ross

The Ever-So-Visually-Inspiring Loveology

The Inspiring Words of Christine Rose Elle

The Fabulous Art and Thoughts of D. Sharp

So go get inspired...happy weekend!

I'm thinking of building an ark...

Holy rain!! I had to dig out this old bright flower photo just because it's so damn dismal! The weather has been crazy. But hey, I haven't had to water the plants! I love some rain, but this is a bit much! I'm thinking that it means the summer will be dry. (yeah, good one.)

Anyway, I am super excited to report that I have been hired to continue to do what I LOVE!! I teach English as a 2nd language to refugees and my program was being "taken over" by a different district. So I refused to hear that bad news, and applied to the new school and got hired! For so many reasons this is even going to be better than before! SO the job I love hopefully just got better! I am hoping to continue to teach at a school with the students that I've had. Things have been QUITE stressful since this news of take-over came, but I am officially hired and in the clear! No unemployment line thank God!

So that's been keeping me very busy, and hopefully now I can relax and chill out!

Be back soon with some artsy stuff!

Leopard, Roses and Steampunk, Oh my!

Oh how I love leopard with some roses! Here's a little flickr mosaic I created for the mood! I love leopard print with pinkish roses even more really. My friend Donnalee and I did a ATC trade recently incorporating leopard and roses and this is what we came up with...

Donnalee made me this card:

And I had a blast making her this Atc...

What a fun theme!! I loved it! and of course, who doesn't love Steampunk?! Donnalee made me this awesome steampunk card...

And I made her this one...

Oh, the fun we have!...

the fun never ends...

More ATCs! Once again, Kimberly and I did a trade. I picked a theme, and she picked a theme. The theme I chose was "Home Sweet Home". Kimberly made me this lovely card with pretty red...

(love the little watering can at the bottom!)

I made her this card using an old original photo of a soldier....

Kimberly chose "What a Doll" as her theme, and made this sweet Charlotte card for me...

I made her this card with a girl holding her dolls...

Pure addiction these cards are! Thanks again Kimberly..it's always a pleasure trading with you!

And once again...if you are interested in trading an ATC or two with me, just let me know! Happy weekend to you.

Time flies......

.

...when you're planning Fun!!

for those who love to read and laugh (at the same time)

I'm so happy....

...that these two books were released recently! I almost don't want to read them yet because then there will be nothing else I haven't read by these two hilarious girls!

more good mail!

For the past few weeks I've been receiving some great mail! I hosted kandeland's Mail Love Postcard Swap "round two" because the first time around was so fun. It's nice to receive inspirational, beautiful postcards along with all those ugly bills! Here are the pretty postcards that were sent to me...

I'm already starting to miss getting postcards in the mail! Many thanks to all the ladies who signed up and played along!

Another way I keep the mail fun (besides online shopping! because those days are virtually over!) is trading ATCs. I did another trade I did with the ever-talented Kimberly , this time using the color pink as a theme.

Kimberly sent me this pretty card...

And I made her this one....(which looking at it here, doesn't seem so "pink" does it? It did when I was making it...rose maybe?)

I spent about FIVE HOURS making ATCs this weekend! It was so relaxing. I had the afternoon to myself Sunday and I spent it cutting, gluing and feeling inspired. I was on a roll and it felt good! ATC trades are so great because they give you the motivation to create and yet there's no big investment of time (well....that is if you don't want there to be, and take on a ton of trades at one time like I did!). I made some other ones that I'm not going to show yet, but it was amazing how things were just working out. The perfect supplies were just throwing themselves at me! I love when your creativity flows so well.

So now I'm obsessively working on some gifts for my next Art Party. I'll be having some wonderful friends here in July and I wanted to start now so I had time to make them each something nice. So of course I'm compulsively working away at that now. Lots going on this week! I will be back to share more in a day or two...

wonderful red

It's no coincedence that my daughter's name is Scarlet! I just LOVE the color of passion and love....

....and cherries, and blood, and roses, and Dennison labels, and Valentine's Day, and tomatoes, and my favorite wine, and London buses, and ladybugs, and sunsets, and Christmas, and hearts.....xo

she's growing up!

Friday night we went to Scarlet's Art and Music Show at her kindergarten-readiness school. (I think she was ready long ago, but why rush the growing up?!). It was the last event at her school before she graduates on to Grade K at the same elementary school I went to!

The night was so cute. All the kids showed their families the art they'd been working on this year. They were all so excited.

And they got to mingle with their classmates too...

After the art part of the show we were treated to a little cookie reception where they sang us a bunch of songs. The teachers did such a nice job on the last event of the year. They even did a really sweet slide show. Here is Scarlet with her teachers...

Now it's just rain, rain, rain for the weekend! But I'm relaxing in the house with tea and books! Wishing you a happy Sunday!