Busy, Busy, Busy

Since it's getting so cold here and it gets dark at about 5:00 there's nothing to do except sit in my "studio" and work. I've been busy, busy, busy working on journals and albums in hopes to keep my store stocked over the holiday season. Here is a little peak at the journals I've been working on (in their not-quite-finished form)...

And a little Santa tin filled with handmade gift tags...I'm hoping I'll get everything finished and up for sale this weekend but things don't always go as planned!

Happy All Saints Day

Happy All Saints Day, All Souls Day and Dia De Los Muertos. My girlfriend (who still has relatives in Mexico) asked her cousin to send me some sugar skulls so I could make these adorable "Day of the Dead" cupcakes found in this book but they haven't arrived yet...maybe next year? Etsy only allows five photos when listing an item for sale so here are the additional photos as promised...
Here is the vintage Memories Fabric/Paper album...
Here are photos of the three jumbo double-sided tags...(front)
(Back)
...and here is the vintage Christmas File Album (I only posted the photos NOT shown in my Etsy store for this one)

A Good Day! (or Two)

The past few days have been very exciting...on Saturday Shelby made an unexpected trip home (gave me three loads of laundry to do but I was happy to do it if it meant spending a few hours with her), I'm even making progress with the dreaded "end-of-visit" anxiety...no tears when she left this time! In addition to that, we FINALLY took the plunge and upgraded my crappy crappy CRAPPY computer, I now have a fancy one with tons of memory and disk space. The whining and crying over my snail of a computer are things of the past...I can now post my "picture of the day" in literally seconds instead of 45 minutes. And...if that wasn't enough to make me a happy girl, I got this package of fabulous felt from Colonial Crafts in the mail Saturday afternoon...I love all the colors! I'll be making little felt Christmas houses until my fingers fall off... Later that day, we ran to an estate sale and I found this wonderful Mary statue (in addition to a few other religious treasures)...they had another like it that was in pristine condition but something about this worn Mary spoke to me, isn't she lovely?
Today's big news is that this complimentary issue of Somerset Studio was waiting for me when I got home from work. I briefly mentioned in an earlier post that I wasn't sure what was being published but I had a hunch it was my love, hope, faith lotto cards. I say I wasn't sure because I was never notified that I was being published in Somerset Studio but I got an email asking me if I wanted a complimentary issue or a voucher for an issue. I sent 4 pieces of "art" to Stampington in hopes of being published. I was notifed by Sew Somerset that one piece would be in the Winter issue (soon to be arriving on my doorstep) and a second piece would be published in the Summer issue (out in June)...so I naturally assumed that there was some sort of mix-up; however, a rep for Somerset Studio assured me a third piece being published...and here they are, mine are the three lotto cards: If you happen to pick up a copy make sure to check me out!
I'll leave you with a few items I've been working on for my store...I'm hoping to get it good and stocked for holiday shopping so I can relax and enjoy the next few months but so far I'm not having much luck!

Have a good week!

Rachel