Nature's Magic

My youngest and I took a little trip this week -- back to my hometown to visit my mom who just had surgery. We left early Sunday so we could take a little detour to one of my favorite places -- Ohio Pyle, PA. Above, the fog was settling in as we drove.
Here are some scenes from our visit.
Below: a natural water slide. The water was too high so we didn't venture into it (it was also very cold).

Mapping out a trail.

Above, a tree growing out of the rocks and below some scenes from Cucumber Falls:

 Can't wait to go back.

Package it Pretty!

I'm a sucker for good packaging and love when I order something -- anything -- and it comes wrapped in a creative way. Take for instance, the packaging materials I bought from AnnabelGray. It was a tiny purchase, just some dry wax bags and little boxes to ship my small items from my Etsy shops. Anyway, it arrived this way. Simple, but so sweet and well done:

She inspired me so, I decided to start sending my heart charms in a similar way - I used to package them with tissue paper. I still wrap tissue around them, but this way is much easier and I think, more fun. I really want to find the brown kraft stickers and create my own envelope sealers, but this is all I could find at Hobby Lobby yesterday.

I also love gift wrapping packages for customers. I sent out my latest creation wrapped in tulle...I love tulle. It makes everything looks so lovely.

Playing Catch Up

Just playing catch up or should I say trying to juggle way too many balls right now. Thought I'd share a few adventures and this really cool photo (above) taken with my iPhone...kind of looks like the heavens are opening.
We went to a water park last week. It was packed with kids from camps. After they all left at about 2:30, we were finally able to enjoy ourselves. And, we did enjoy ourselves...we didn't leave until 7 PM!

We also went for a few hikes this summer:

not much else happening ...just work, work, work. Oh, and a couple of etsy sales, which I'm always very happy about!

Weddings and Keepsakes

I love weddings. And, I love creating for them. I like creating keepsake boxes for the bride. I've had a few custom requests such as the one pictured above. I also made a few from vintage boxes that I hoped would be purchased by someone as a wedding or anniversary gift, such as this one below --it's a music box that actually plays "Love Story."

I've done a lot of wine glass charms. They are, by far, my most popular etsy order. They require a little time to create since I have to do each one by hand -- painting, then distressing, then stamping. Almost exactly a year ago, I hand-painted more than 100 charms for a couple in London. Read about it here.

I hope to make something for a very special bride-to-be, my nephew's fiancé. The wedding is in November. I can't wait!
Linking to:

Duck Tales II

Oh, I have been working too hard and traveling on weekends to various games. No time for blogging, but I did want to share how big our baby duck is getting! The boys have been taking good care of them.

A Pretty Good Recipe (Box)

Ingredients:
1 vintage box
1 wood embellishment
1/4 C Chalk paint in off-white
1 paint brush
ink pad - black
French script rubber stamp
sanding block
felt
furniture wax

Directions:
Paint box and wood embellishment. Allow to dry. Use sanding block to lightly distress paint. Use ink and stamp to randomly stamp box. Use ink to further "distress" box. Glue felt to bottom. Use furniture wax to finish and seal.
Enjoy!

Linking to: Timewashed and Woodberry Designs

Duck Tales

You may recall that we got ducklings at Easter. Sweet little things who grew into large pooping machines. We still loved them. The boys made a pen out back complete with two stories and a ramp to get to the second level. Unfortunately, a hard lesson was learned as the boys forgot to put the ducks back in the pen one night. Only one survived a fox attack. We don't know how the duck escaped, but we found her badly injured in my neighbor's stairwell. We nursed her back to health in the comfort of our family room "hospital."  Since then we've been on the hunt for a new duckling as a companion for our poor lonely one. We found one on Wednesday.
Meet the new duckling:

This one is very noisy, and is still too young to be with the older one, so it has companion stuffed animals. Very, very sweet as it thinks the stuffed animals are alive.