SENDING A BOUQUET

So I send you all a bouquet during this

time of difficulty:

It was snowing lightly this morning and

has since melted away.  I picked these

to bring them in from freezing.

Mostly I keep busy restocking my tea cozies

on my Etsy page:

I participated in the spring cards exchange

in the tea group I am in on Facebook called

"Afternoon Tea Across America". 
 I made 27 cards:

These were fun to make and amateur of course

but it was fun "playing" with glue.

Stay safe and go by the rules!!!

WHEN THE PUSSY WILLOW BLOOMS

When summer comes I grumble

about the heat.  By July it is really

getting hot and we have a lot of

humidity.  Spring here in Missouri

is really lovely and does come very

early.  We have 4 distinctive seasons

and I do love that.

So in this early part of March I

am encouraged because I know that

spring will be here in the upcoming weeks

(and not just on the calendar).

So now the pussy willow is just beginning
to open it's buds.  The sight of it is
so hopeful and here and there bulbs are
popping out of the ground and 
forget-me-nots that survived our
milder winter.  These were the little baby ones
from the big dying mother plants. I am
glad that last fall and I planted them
 here and there.

I am very thankful to have a wonderful

sewing room and craft room to help

occupy the winter.  Now,  I look forward

to time in the garden and to see how

things might be this year.

Talking about the lovely weather seems
inappropriate in view of the tornado
devastation last night in Tennessee.
I have been praying for these people today
and ask you to join me.

EASTER CROSSES

I recently worked on a dozen

crosses to give to friends and

share at my church.

I decorated a special bag for each one too!

As spring arrives I plan to be busy in the 

garden but lots of crafting has helped

 me survive this winter.  If I didn't enjoy

hobbies, tea, sewing, baking, etc 

 - I would be very bored!

EPHEMERA PAPER SHOES

Yesterday I made some paper shoes.  
I had seen the ones in the current
issue of Victoria Magazine so I was

inspired to try some:

They were definitely not an easy

project.  I didn't have a pattern so

I did a lot of guessing.

My labels reads "Victorian Ephemera

for the 21st Century by Bernideen".

For this project - I sewed quite a 

bit of the paper.

EASTER EPHEMERA

After making some Ephemera
 ornaments at Christmastime and quite
 a few cards at Valentines Day, I have
 gotten even more interested in making  cards, ornaments,
 decorations, etc.

A friend here gave me the base
"postcard" decorations above which came
from the Hobby Lobby so I embellished
them a little more.

My tea lady friends as we call
ourselves here in Columbia love 
doing this too but we all put different
 styles together.  As you can see I
have been using my kitchen
table to cut things out over this
snowy weekend.  Now that the
tea is over - time to move this
back to one of the larger tea
tables which do come in handy!

Last week I spent 3-4 hours designing various 
sayings in English and French to put on
 cards, etc.  Of  course, then they have to be
 copied and pasted to print them in a variety

 of font sizes.  I didn't like all of  them

 all afterwards,  but for me I don't think 

of it as a waste of time because that's

how I learned to do something new.

Of course - this artwork all focuses on 
Easter.  Last year  a friend gave me
the little basket ornaments for my 
birthday and the above 2 postcard
type pictures.  Now I added another
and put all on a star wreath I put
together for Easter:

Sharing at:
Create, Bake, Grow and Gather

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY WEEK

For the past couple of weeks I

have enjoyed making Valentines

at my kitchen table.  It has been

very cold so I brought crafting

supplies upstairs and now I am

glad to get it all removed.

This is the large medallion I made

for my downstairs tea room.  I

had fun making some Valentines

for friends.

I have had the Dee Foust "Love" 

banner for years so I have enjoyed it on

the mantle:

I hope you have a lovely

Valentines Day Week!

THE TROUBLE WITH ME

No need for alarm...

no trouble.....just

a confession!  I don't like to

repeat the same projects over

and over.  I like doing many

different things.  I have had 

fun making these for friends.

My one friend

loves horses so I hope she loves

Victorian horses.

I have been cutting out clip art and

using glue and glitter for days here

and making an ongoing mess in

the kitchen so now I am sure I 

will love seeing things that came

to fruition and the mess associated

with them out of here.

I did some tea

 themed Valentine

cards of course!

And this one with Tasha Tudor's art 
from "All For Love" combined with
 the Eiffel Tower:

Now I am on to baking for a big event

at church tomorrow to help raise funds

 for needs in our community.

Hope you have a great weekend!

MAKING VALENTINE MEDALLIONS & CARDS

As you can see - there is snow on the

 ground seen outside the kitchen window:

A friend gave me this chalkboard

from the dollar store so I made

it into a valentine....

I have been having fun making

some whimsical valentines.

One of my friend's loves

all things French so I made

her this Valentine "medallion":

a little more shabby chic style.

We have been having severely

cold weather in Missouri so

it is a wonderful to snuggle in

and do some crafting!

I made this "medallion" for

my Victorian loving friend:

And as a late add on here are some I
am sending to friends:

Last year I made this tea cozy
and a Tasha Tudor Sparrow Hawk
Valentine House:

So, what projects 

are you working 
on this winter?

EPHEMERA ENDEAVORS

I am happy to have some time now

to try my hand at some Shabby

Chic/Victorian Ephemera endeavors.

When I make things I don't always
spend a lot of time designing.  I
just pick up things in my hand that 
I have purchased or made
and gathered on
the table - in this case lots of
tables and then I go forward. 

 I know many people
draw out designs, etc first.  I did
use my sewing machine to hand
gather and pleat tissue papers that
I had cut into strips and also tulle
that had been glittered.  I tried using
my ruffler/pleater but couldn't get
it to work so I just did it by gathering
along on the sewing machine.

I guess I put the most in this cone:

I printed out some Ephemera paper
snow angels, etc that I purchased
on Etsy.  Right now I am also drawn
to French writing Ephemera 
and Madonna's.

This is called a Hearth room
 which is
part of our kitchen:

I set up a table temporarily
to enjoy watching Hallmark's
while I worked these last
two days.

And this last one:

Of course this means making some

messes too but that's ok.

I made a little label that I glued
on to the back of each one that
says "Victorian Ephemera in the
21st Century by Bernideen". 

LEARNING PAPER EPHEMERA

Yesterday I played making a round paper

 medallion to hang behind

my angels:

This was my first card this week I
made to send to a friend:

Hope you are having a great weekend!