Do you love Pinterest as much as I do? If so, follow me! My boards are pretty recent as it took me awhile to actually start using it. Some people claim it’s addictive and I can see why. Tonight I found the easiest recipe for sticky buns that I will definitely be making Sunday.  The decorating ideas and collections of handmade goods are what interest me most but I find my boards are branching out to include much more.

Follow me and show me what you’ve found!

Flat Paige’s Adventure in Texas

I have arrived. Without boots. This could be a problem because it already looks like everybody in Texas wears boots.

 As you can see by my face, I am very happy to be out of that envelope!

My Aunt Lisa was very happy to see me, too. She said I look just like Paige and I said, “Well, yeah.”  Hahahaha!

  The first thing I did when I got there was get to meet their kitty cat named Guinevere. You can see by this picture that she was so surprised to see me that she did a double take fast and could not believe her eyes!

Then I met their little Shih Tzu named Roxi. She seemed confused who I was and it looked like she was asking her mommy about me. Her mommy must understand doggy talk because she was explaining that I came for a visit and would be staying in Texas with them.

The next day we went shopping for some sunglasses

 and some boots in my favorite color. Pink!

While I was visiting, I got to go to my first Home Coming football game. I went with my new friend Ava and watched her cheer. I really wanted to but I wasn’t able to jump unless a good wind came along.

Ava’s mom even made me my very own mum for the game!

The next night was Halloween and Aunt Lisa let me go with Ava since she is my BFF in Texas. We put on costumes and we were both witches. I know I look like a table centerpiece here but that is just because I’m so short.

 I guess it’s easy to see why we won First Place at the Costume Party.

This was our prize…along with a LOT of candy.

 And here we all are on Girls Night Out at the Haunted House….

The weekend before I left, my aunt and cousin took me out to eat Tex-Mex food.It’s a cross between Texican and Mexican and it’s spicy HOT. Yowsa!~

 I might look like I’m smiling but that’s just because I was trying to get both straws in my mouth to stop the mad burning from the salsa.

Aunt Lisa said this poster was about as close to the Gulf as I was going to get so she stuck me on the wall with it to take a picture. She’s funny. Ha! Ha!

One of the best things about Texas was learning how to blow bubbles with my gum. Notice it’s my favorite color, PINK!

Now I’m headed home to Oklahoma because I would like my Mom to take me to see the Smurfs. I asked Aunt Lisa but she said, “Been there. Done That. 30 Years Ago.”

 It might be a quote from the movie so I’ll be watching for it!

As they say in Texas, “Ya’ll be good now!”

And YAAAAAA-HOOOOOOOOOOOOO

THE END

There are journals, and then there are artisan handmade journals. There are leather journals, fabric journals, paper journals and artisan clay journals. Clay? That’s right. Clay. How cool is this?

This journal was designed and created by the artist, Pat Pearson. Each journal is unique to its owner. Pat lists these as custom pieces as you can choose your own colors and any possible significance you would like. I chose to let Pat do whatever she wanted. I told her I like all colors and showed her a photo (in my bio on ArtFire) of my mosaic back-splash I did with broken china just to assure her. I told her I looked forward to seeing what she would do as a surprise for myself. I kind of like the thought of buying something to surprise yourself, don’t you? I mean I had seen her samples in her studio photographs and couldn’t possibly go wrong trusting her artistic endeavor…and I was right.Pat got to work molding her clay and binding pages and all kinds of magic things in the next few days. She updated me about 3 days later to let me know the status and then a couple of days later to let me know my journal had shipped. I couldn’t wait for the package to arrive because of course…it was a surprise. A delightful one at that! I marveled at the beauty of this handmade journal and couldn’t wait to show everyone I know. It’s so cool and almost too pretty to write in.  I say “almost” because I certainly don’t want to mess it up. I think I will just jot down very special notes in it. Like what I’m grateful for or when something amazing happens out of the blue. I’ll keep it tucked in my purse and when it is full, I’ll place it on my dresser for someone else to keep someday.

My lovely journal has a collection of charms on it, one of which is a teeny tiny journal. I’m quite certain I would have gone mad before I could ever have put this little darling together. I can see it now, glue everywhere, pages stuck together and a general mess. Not Pat’s little journal charm. Oh no. It is exquisite! I think I’ll write “I love you little journal” on its pages inside. Sweet. As you can see below, my grown-up journal is a very nice size. Pat says one could even sketch in it. I’m not that one…but, it’s certainly the right size to carry in your purse. She also makes a larger version for those that have more to say, or those that like to sketch.

Pat Pearson’s Studio is not able to create any of these in time for Christmas now as her hands are full with other orders. However, if you would like your very own artisan journal, you can always contact her through her studio on ArtFire. I’ll include a link in the final photograph below. I do hope you’ll check these out because I’m in love with mine and I think everyone should have one.

Celebrate artisan handmade goods…and if you can’t do it yourself find someone like Pat Pearson, who can. ;->

ArtFire unique gift guides for the holiday season got me thinking. How many people go to ArtFire to shop for the holidays? Etsy was once ArtFire’s size and people spread the word and did the work to make Etsy what it is today. As a jewelry artist and crafter, I long for the day ArtFire becomes as big as the The Big E.

Like Etsy, many unique gifts can be found in the gift guides and this year I hope thousands more people are looking. I see some of the unique items on ArtFire and realize that people probably don’t even know some of these artists exist, much less that they want or need what they’re offering.

How’s this for unique? Have you ever seen anything like it? I marvel at the fact the a person made this. With blown glass. Mind boggling. To me at least. Did you have any idea you could adopt something like this?

Kelly Lowe Glass also has blown Christmas ornaments at a very reasonable price. A great idea for collectors of unique ornaments and absolutely perfect as Hostess Gifts.

Save the wine and give a unique bottle stopper instead. Kelly has those, too!

This year, try something different. Shop somewhere different. Check out ArtFire and find a unique gift for the person on your list that digs artisan handmade or vintage cool.

Lisa

I searched and searched for a way to add my favicon to Market theme. My host is Go Daddy and Market theme online support forums suggested I go there to upload the file. Well. OK. It does not work. I read countless threads and tried entering the code in the header.php…and just for fun, tried adding it in different areas and keeping my fingers crossed. Still a no go. Just when I was resigned to the fact that I would have an odd gray globe forever, I found this…..

Multicons  plugin for WP.

You can thank me later.  Thank them right away. ;->