Creative Pay-it Foward

In January one of my VERY talented artist friends, Shirley Harris, posted this on her Facebook page.  

2013 Creative Pay-It-Forward: The first five people to comment on this status will receive from me, sometime in the the next calendar year, a gift. It could be anything-it will be a surprise-and it will be hand made by me. There will likely be no warning and it will happen whenever the mood strikes me. The catch? Those five people must make the same offer in their facebook status. Make sure you message me your address. This is going to be fun!!

I love to receive surprises in the mail and am so blessed to have friends that do send me surprise gifts from time to time and when it arrives it is usually at a time that I so needed it to happen. I simply could not resist the urge to pay this forward on my FB page as well. I didn't play along just to receive gifts so much (OMGOSH..who am I kidding, I already said I LOVE to get surprise gifts in the mail) but as a way to send gifts out to some of my fellow artistic friends. I had four friends that took up the challenge and I am so excited to be sending them something from me. I'm very excited to receive my gifts too and as a matter of fact....I have received two of mine already.

My sweet friend Janice sent this beautiful handmade gift to me when the Chazman and I were battling that gnarly, nasty flu bug. It came at the perfect time to pick our spirits up. Oh yes, the Chazman gets just as excited about receiving packages in the mail too.  (I tell him it is to both of us) She called it the "HEART IN A HEART". We unwrapped the pretty tissue paper and there was the cutest lil burlap heart with a tiny red rose on top. I was so happy with that, that I didn't even notice that it had something inside of it. The Chazman did though!! Inside the burlap heart was a beautiful paper art heart on a pretty ribbon necklace. We hung them on our Mardi Gras-Valentine tree so we could look at them and enjoy them together. They will both hang in my studio once I change the Holiday tree for next month. Thank you Jan!!

I have followed Shirley Harris's work for awhile now and I just love her whimsical art work. Talk about someone so surprised when we opened the box from her and found this AWESOME plague. I can hardly wait til spring gets here and I can hang it on my front door. Chaz is convinced that Ms. Shirley had us both in mind when she painted this for us. The ladybug and the chick are mine and the frogs are his. Thank you Shirley!!!

Now....I want to apologize for it having been several days since I have posted. Technical difficulties in life have kinda gotten in the way lately!! If you come to visit often then you know I have been working on the monster goodie bags for the Chazman to take to school tomorrow for Valentine's Day and that has taken up a good bit of my time as well. However....I finally finished getting them all put together this morning. Talk about "up to the last minute". Whew!!! Chaz is excited and wished that this morning was tomorrow morning so that he could take them to his classmates...LOL He is sure that they will really like them because we added some cool goodies....like the handmade friendship bracelets....the Heart Pop ring.....Sweet Tart mini hearts.....Fun Dip and a pencil. I tied the tag on the bag without knotting it so that they can open it without tearing it. I'm excited about tomorrow getting here myself...I want to hear how they went over. I had a big bag that I did a few little tags for and that's what all the small bags will travel in. Fingers crossed it isn't raining in the morning.....as it is now!!! Not complaining about the rain though...the Chazman and I love to dance in it!!!

Until next time...........Hugs,
Regi

Who loves paper bags? WE DO WE DO!!!

Thank goodness the Chazman headed off to school this morning. OK OK that's not entirely true....he drug his feet on our walk to school and said that he didn't want to go....wanted to stay home with me...not leave me all alone. HEY..it almost worked too but I know that after missing a week with that gnarly, nasty flu bug that he didn't need to miss anymore. The thought was ohhhh so sweet though...ya gotta admit!!!

Sorry I didn't post any this weekend. Hope YOU  had a good one!! We were trying to rest and recoup so we could be ready for this week.  The Chazman and I played several games of Farkle (with real dice and everything..hehe) and UNO. He and I love to play games even if he does seem to always beat me. I do mean always too!! While we were playing he asked if I would make something special for his classmates for Valentine's. Of course, he knew I would....all....twenty-five.....of....them!! HAHA   Our budget is a bit tiny this month so I started looking in our stash to see just what I had available. Here's my list of items I found to make some really awesome (Chazman's word) goodie bags.  PAPER BAGS, GOOGLIE EYES, CRAYONS, GEL PENS, WATERCOLOR PENCILS, YARN and TAGS and oh yeah....glittery hearts.  I drew some monsters on a piece of paper (that's what Chaz wanted) then after his approval I started putting them together. What fun!! He sat and played with his science kit goo and created (a BIG MESS) while I worked. I drew on all the bags first. WHEW...it took awhile too. Then I took one (of many) and started decorating it. Here's three of them. HEY...it takes time to do these peoples and I'm just hoping I can get them all finished by the 14th. *GULP*

I'm going to punch a small hole on the top left side of the bag and tie a tag with multicolored yarn to it. I have some cute sayings picked out that are of course Chazman approved. ^_^

Have a Wild Valentine's!!

I'm CRAZY about you!!

You're so COOL it's scary!!

I only have EYES for you!!

Hope it's a MONSTER of a Valentine's Day!!

I have been buying candy for over a month to use for Valentines and I'm so happy that Chaz wanted these paper MONSTER bags. (kiddos will love these much better than candy in a baggie..I hope)  I'm thinking of making some of my small paper boxes and putting some of the candy hearts with sayings on them inside them. Perhaps a trip to the Dollar Tree and buy some pencils to go inside too. I love making the Chazman happy and he loves making his classmates happy. It's going to be a HAPPY Valentine's for sure!!

Until next time............Hugs,

Regi, Chazman and the lil monsters!!!

Back to normal...well..as normal as I can be ^_^

Ahhhhh....it's a New Year!! Want me to tell your future? Do you really want to know? Nahhhh....I can't really tell you and I'm sure you really don't want to know. To me.....that's part of the amazing part of our life's adventures...the not knowing. Where would the fun or the adventure be if we knew...hehe. I'm just happy that with the holidays coming to a close that my adventures can get back to a bit of normalcy...well...as normal as my world can be. ^_^

The Chazman and I have been sitting and doodling some with his cousins in mind. He loves to be a part of my designs and when that can happen...I LOVE it. So blessed that my lil guy has a tiny muse sitting on his shoulder too. I still have to make gifts for the ones that we won't get to see until sometime later in the year...they wanted us to bring them to them so we could see them open them. Just have to love a loving family filled with kiddos. Chaz thought that his boy cousins would love some monsters to play with...so monsters it is. (He knew that was what I was planning but it's so soo AWESOME that he sat and drew out a pattern for me to follow) He drew the bodies and I added the faces. They will be made with crazy fabrics or faux fur or felt or perhaps a bit of it all.

The first one is a monster that will have twisted ears (Chaz wasn't sure how to draw them so he told me..hehe) and a furry tongue sticking out. The second top one is a Bearster...yep...that's a monster and bear combined. He will have long arms so he can give great big bear hugs. My Chazman is sooo cute!! Of course, he said that there needed to be a "crazy" dust bunny. I'm thinking of making him with a dry corn bottom and then making a few cotton bags (or carrots....HEY...even a monster dust bunny has to eat) to go with him so he can play. Then there is the Batty monster...need I say more. The last lil monster is a fire monster....a real HOT HEAD for sure. I think with this great assortment of monsters....there will be some happy cousins.



Until next time....HUGS, Regi (and the Chazman)