Cupcakes

Just a quick post to share the fabulous cupcakes one of my good friends brought me for my birthday last week. They were almost too pretty to eat but in the end that did not stop me.

And of couse what are designer cupcakes without the right wine pairing?

Needless to say, it was a GOOD birthday.

New Year, new classes at Paper Zone!

Hello to 2010! The holidays have come and gone and we can now forge ahead into the New Year. My only resolution was not to make any resolutions the required a finite goal, but rather to just try and keep on doing the things that make me happy. Of course that includes continuing to teach at the Paper Zone in Bellingham, I am now scheduled to teach Sticky Note and Memo Pad Booklets on January  23rd, Shrink Plastic Charms on January 24th and CD & Memorabilia Pocket Book on January 31st. Registration info is here at Paper Zone.

Here is the Sticky Note and Memo Pad Booklet, a great gift that is quick and easy to make. They fit the standard 3 X 3 and 3 X 5 sticky note pads or regular note pads you get at any store.

I had posted a picture of the CD & Memorabilia book in December, here is one similar to what will be taught in the class.

In other news I finally finished the ATC's for the ArtFest ATC swap book, they have been sent off to Bee Shay the coordinator. The theme was Once Upon a Time and I love dragons so I found some cool clipart on the internet, printed it on a transparency, layered onto kraft paper that was crumpled and aged with distress ink, placed a frame around it and finished it with "Here Be Dragons" printed on colored vellum and some glitter glue.

We had to decorate the backs also...

The background paper was made using liquid watercolors in spray bottles, Adirondack sprays, stencils and glitter spray. There was as slight technical malfunction with the can of glitter spray at the time, the nozzle came off and the little tube thing stayed depressed and the can would not stop spraying...so there was a frantic exit from the studio, arms flailing as glitter sprayed everywhere, I am still cleaning it up 4 months after the incident, but it was VERY EXCITING and VERY GLITTER-Y for about 5 minutes.

January and February will be busy months, I will be taking a sequence of four classes in February at Whatcom Community College in web design so I can get a full web site going and a Etsy store.

I noticed today that some of my spring bulbs are up, they may be a little optimistic as the ten day forecast is talking about snow next week. The roses are showing no signs of buds, they are always my best indication spring is on the way. Bellingham does seem pretty tropical though after we drove up to northern British Columbia to spend Christmas with my folks. It is a 22 hour drive and temps were around -25 for most of our trip up and back. The roads were mostly black ice and we would get a complete white out when the big semi rigs would pass us, it was like being in an episode of Ice Road Truckers. We were driving our big Dodge truck and pulling a snowmobile so at least we didn't look too much like City Folk, though. Here is the road up. We did see one moose, two deer roadkills and two dogsleds (really!!).

And you know you are in the North when you see this sign...

We did have a wonderful Christmas with my folks, all snug and cozy in their log cabin, it was truly a White Christmas.

All the best to everyone and looking forward to 2010.