Hello!!!!!!

How have you been? Wow it's been so long since I've been here!! I've been so busy! The summer came and there were baseball games and county fairs. CornFests and $1.00 movie tuesdays. Weddings and interviews.

Friends in town and a 50th birthday. Cooling off in the pool and working up a sweat at the gym. Concerts and crafting. Sleep overs and staying up late.

There were BBQs and summer foods too. Many lazy mornings, wearing pjs all day and shopping trips. I think we managed to get quite a lot in even if we didnt travel out of the area this year.

In addition to the fun we've been having around here, (which has definately impacted how much I've been crafting lately).... I also got a full time job!! I can see how full time work may impact how much time I spend in my studio!! Oh, I havent stopped crafting...I'm just even slower at getting my projects done than I was before!!

I have a really fun mini album that I've been working on for weeks a little here and a little there. I really like it...some of the pages are so fun!!! Creams, whites, teals and pinks...yum! I hope to have it finished in the next week or so. Hopefully I'll manage to get a few in the shop too!!

I still want to show you the message board I was working on. We sanded it down and repainted it again. A leaf fell on it and stuck. We sanded it down again and repainted. It has turned out super pretty....I just need to finish it (story of my life!) and hang it before I show you! It is also that time of year to start finding some fun treats for the Girls...the new school year is coming up fast....Hard to believe how much my babies are growing up!!! One of them is even off to High School in a few short weeks!!

So I just wanted to pop in and say Hello...to tell you...I'll be back with some cute things soon.....and that I hope you're enjoying your summer and the weather and all that is good and right.
XOXO,

Cookies are Made of Butter and Love!!!!

Its the time of year where everyone is baking and cooking all sorts of delightful delectables!! Every year when December rolls around I say I am going to host a Cookie Exchange Party, this is the year! Then too many things come up and I forget about doing it, when I finally remember....well its just to late!! Luckily I was invited to a friend's cookie exchange! So I was able to have all the fun without all the work! We were to each to bring 3 dozen treats....and a $10 gift to exchange!
While I wish I could be like Bakerella....I just don't have those skills in me....so my attempt at snowmen gingerbread turned out looking like this instead of looking like her little adorable masterpieces!! Oh well....they tasted Great!!

Quite a few of mine.....overflowed onto the sides of the cookies...but I didn't mind...those ones stayed home...and got new names...like Melted Snowman Cookies!! They tasted just as good as the "real snowmen".

For the gift exchange I gave one of my mini albums with all green accents...it got traded several times before finding its new home!! That was so fun to watch and see!!! I wrapped it up all pretty too....

I hope you get a chance to go to or host a cookie exchange party! They are so fun...I meet some really nice people!! We played games, ate, told stories, swapped gifts and I came home with 3 dozen different cookies {I wont be eating them though of course and I kinda hope the family gobbles them fast!! Its so hard to resist yummy treats this time of year!!} I'm glad I was invited and went!!! {Thanks MP!}

So whats your favorite Cookie recipe? Is there something you make every year that is a tradition that you can't do without? Do you leave cookies out for Santa?!

Hugs,

*Norwegian Proverb

Wednesday Words....Late....

Wow...did time get away from me!! I didn't manage to even do Wednesdays Words....ugh....

Photo via Pinterest

I will have the minis/journals in the shop sometime before the end of this weekend!! I am still packaging some of them up!!
xo,

Mini Art Journal Fun!!!

A while ago, I bought my Girls the Smash Journals from K & Company {Okay, yes...one for myself too!}. I love the idea of it but soon realized that its just too big for me to lug around. The Girls like them but don't take them with them for the same reason and because they are too big for their already over laden backpacks. After seeing some of Amy Tangerine's albums I thought I would make something similar that I could shove in my purse and the Girls could tuck in their backpacks! This is what I came up with....

So Fun! Seriously. I sewed all these fun pages in there...like vintage atlas pages and vintage sheet music. Plastic overlays, a card stock card, graph paper, ledger paper, regular paper. An envelope and more. Ends up to be 40 pages to put pictures on,decorate, stick stuff too and of course write on!! Here is a peek inside....

I made lots of them. I'm doing some craft fairs this coming Holiday season and need to start getting prepared...They are packaged up with some Happy Little Bits to use for the cover and inside the mini journal...This is what the pink bits look like...I thought this would be so perfect for Breast Cancer awareness...

I didn't just make pink embellishments....I made the rainbow of colors...Whats your favorite color? I probably made one in that color too! Inside is fun foreign stamps, cork board tags, glittered clothespin, felt circle, paint chips and more!! So Fun!! I'll be putting some of these in my etsy shop tomorrow...fun part is you can pick what color you want your embellishments to be!!!

So, I've been busy, busy! What are you doing? The weather here has finally turned into fall....with rain and all! I kinda love it!! I love sweat pants and sweaters, rain boots and warm crock pot food!!
Hope your having a great week!! Thanks for stopping by!!!
Hugs,

Happy Monday....

Monday! Oh how I love a Monday morning....I like it when everyone has to get up and go...summer is so hard when my little babies stay up late watching a movie and then sleep until noon or beyond....teenagers....glorious little teenagers!!

This weekend I made a little art journal or mini photo album {as they are sometimes called} to highlight our little day trip to Monterey and the beach. {Its already been claimed by my youngest Daughter}. When I was done I saw all the extra papers and decided to go ahead and make some blank minis to put in the shop! I'll have 3 available!

Here are the fun and funky pages inside the book....lots of different textures...like felt pages, cork board pages and envelopes and tags...I even did a little sewing for you on 5 of the pages!!

I didn't stop there....I added lots and lots of embellishments, some handmade like a yummy yo-yo and glitter button flowers, punched butterflies...oohhhhh yea!! Its all in the cool colors of summer....Yellow, Teal and Orange!!!

I love how all the pages are different and while looking at one page you can see other pages peeking out...

Here is one page in my little album....a jelly fish page...I finally used the cool little printer the Kids got me for Mother's Day and I heard a resounding "It's about time" throughout the house....guess I should have used it earlier!!!

So....What do you think? It's my first time making minis for the shop...and they were so fun...I'm going to make some more...the next one is going to be PINK!!

If you have an extra second I would love for you to "Like" my HappyLittleArt page on Facebook.....just click HERE!

I hope your Monday is Great!! Thanks for visiting!!