I Love October!

Why do I love October?

Fall!

Not nearly as showy as in the northern states, but even here in Florida there's a little Fall color and a definite change in the temperature! Loving these cool mornings!!! Fall is in the air!

Family

Cupcake Decorating Contest

We have an October Halloween-Birthday-OctoberFest to celebrate the many October family birthdays. That's always fun!

The invitations were sent

in their own special envelopes!

Friends

Aren't blog friends amazing? When I didn't receive one of her tags in Kimberly (ArtJoyStuff)'s recent Halloween Tag Swap, my friend Sherry of Createology sent me one.  Just look at this wonderfully creative wrapping!

And here's Sherry's oh-so-cleverly creative tag! Can you guess what that little item with the spider web on it really is? Go here to find out!

Sherry didn't receive one of my tags either, so I sent her one -

in a special envelope  - propped up here by one of my cats - looks like the party invitations!

 The tag I sent to Sherry - a little different from the others I made for the swap. I usually make several before deciding what to make for a swap.

Of course there are many other reasons for loving October - these are just a few!

Happy October!

October Fun.....

October is...

Birthday Month for our family - almost too many to count!  

We often have one big Halloween/Birthday/October Fest towards the end of the month to celebrate all the local birthdays - and that's what we'll do this year - if I can recover from these dratted Shingles in time to prepare!

  

October brings Fall weather, a welcome relief after all the hot and humid months of summer. Always enjoy the Fall and Halloween swaps too!  Such fun to see what everyone's making and swapping - so much creativity - Wow!

Kimberly's ArtJoyStuff swaps are always so much fun! This time we made 5 tags and received 5 back, along with some really special Kimberly 'goodies'.

Halloween Goodies Galore!

Look at the wonderful tags I received!

Carol Pohl - Front

and Back - EEK! HaHa!

Lululizinlalaland

Kelly Deal

Constantina

Michele Murray

Look what Kimberly added - this cute clip 

and

this spectacular wooden "witchy" tag!

Oh, Kimberly, you did it again - what a wonderful swap!  Go check out ArtJoyStuff to see all the other tags - over 20 swappers in all!

Such Beautiful Fairies!

Karla's Faerie Book Swap

Karla Nathan comes up with really wonderful swap ideas - like this one! We sent in 8 fairy pages and received 8 different pages bound into a book.  Karla made the covers, selected the best pages for each book, and decorated the binding ring with lovely ribbons and charms. 

Warning: Lots of Photos Ahead!

Karla's Front Cover - she hand-painted the beautiful little fairy, then decorated the copies differently with flower petals or leaves for the fairy's wings and added other embellishments too. Probably no two covers are exactly alike.

Flower Fairies - Tami Hacker - the arms and legs move so she can dance!

Tami digitally created the back of her page

Suzie Button - blue satin, lace, jewels, butterflies, and more!

The back of Suzie's page - how dreamy!

Beautiful Fairy in a forest of green velvet leaves - Ruth Flowers

A younger fairy on the back of Ruth's page - and dream by Nancy Collins

The back of Nancy's page - and Kathy Kathy Cabble's Blue Flower Fairy - the dewdrops don't show in my photo

The Blue Flower Fairy's back page - and Lynn Legge's Sleeping Fairy - so elegant

The back of Lynne's Sleeping Fairy. I think this might've been the front of the page - so beautiful - but the other side looked better with the Blue Fairy page.  Karla selected pages that looked good together for each book.  Here the Fairy Whispers page by Myrna Ernst looks good with Lynne's page. Of course, they're both beautiful on their own too!

The back of Fairy Whispers - and this sweet Pink Fairy leaning over to smell the flower by Carol Pohl.  She makes me think of a Hummel girl!

The back of Carol's Pink Fairy page - the really dramatic background doesn't show so well in my photo! Karla used vintage wallpaper for the inside front and back covers, as well as the back cover.

I'm so happy that I was able to join this swap! Love my book!!! When I made my pages to send to Karla, I made an extra to keep for my own book.  I'll show it along with the others I made in my next post - soon, I hope!

Rain Flowers and Sew Many More

Rain Flowers?

No complaints after months of drought, but we have had an unusual amount of rain lately, even for June, the traditional rainy month.  So when I noticed all the mushrooms or toadstools (no idea which!), I decided they must be our Rain Flowers!

Doesn't this one look like a little fairy home? So cute!

Different shades and different shapes 

Even the underside is interesting!

Sadly, no beautiful peonies or roses to show here - just these funny little "Rain Flowers"!  

BUT

A wonderful package of flowery goodness arrived a few days ago!

ArtJoyStuff's Sew Many Flowers ATC Swap

Our terrific swap hostess, Kimberly, always has a creative way of packaging the swaps.  This time she used actual pattern envelopes and pattern directions for packaging the Sew Many Flowers ATCs. What fun to receive this package!

Here's Amy's "Carefree" 

Love this little girl in the very pale blue dress!

Karla's  "Omas Buttons" 

Georgeous buttons - and so much detail. I thought the stick pin was real until I felt it (the jewel is real but the pin's part of the collage)

And Liz's  lacy floral beauty. Can hardly see the dainty fern background, but it's perfect.

Kimberly included this lovely tag for each of us. This was a 3/3 swap, so lots of fun! If you'd like to see my ATCs, take a peek here,  a post or two ago.  Thank you all so much! I love my new ATCs! And thank you, Kimberly, for once again being such a wonderful swap hostess!

It might not be too late to join this month's Mermaid ATC Swap. Check it out here! Can hardly wait to see all the mermaids!

April in Paris - and in Jacksonville too!

April in Paris ATC Swap

Kimberly's swaps are always so much fun, and this was no exception.  With a theme like "April in Paris", who wouldn't have fun?

The first one I made - I always end up changing them a little - 

or a lot!

They're pretty much the same, except for the bottom trim and the larger flowers. Also used a pearl to dot the 'i' in Paris instead of the tiny gemstones. I liked the girl's pose. She looked like she was dreaming  about something - Paris?  

Slightly larger view of one.  

and April in Jacksonville .....

At the time I was making these, or thinking about them, we visited one of the local museums, The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, to see the exhibit of Impressionist Art on loan from the High Museum in Atlanta as part of Jacksonville's celebration of our French Heritage.  Wonderful exhibit! No photos of the artworks, but a few from the gardens.

The azaleas and camellias had finished 

but some other flowers were blooming the day we visited

One of the huge old oaks leaning down into another part 

of the gardens. Perhaps  this ancient Live Oak was just a tiny seedling 450 years ago when Jean Ribault landed and claimed what became Florida for France. The settlements he left here were soon destroyed by the later-arriving Spanish, but there are still quite a few place names left from the French era.

A glimpse of one of the bridges going across the St. John's 

 This special exhibit of  the Impressionists - French and a few  American - must've inpired me to make my "Dreaming of Paris" ATCs! It's been a long time - maybe time to go to Paris (again)?!